At the closing ceremony for the Photo Hanoi'23, the organising board announced impressive figures: more than 200 articles and reports of all genres published, over five million hits via social networks, 170,000 visitors and 10,000 participants to live and online seminars.
French Ambassador to Vietnam Nicolas Warnery affirmed that Photo Hanoi'23 witnessed the active participation of photographers from Vietnam and abroad. The event’s success in both artistic and communication aspects is the basis for connecting more partnerships and improving the event’s prestige. It is hoped that this will become a rendezvous in the list of frequent activities for the art community in the region and around the world, as well as contribute an extra highlight to promote Hanoi's tourism.
Photo Hanoi'23 was held with a large scale and high professionalism. Through the event, contemporary photography art has been fully realised as a panoramic and multi-dimensional picture for not only viewers but also the whole art practice community.
Ambassador Nicolas Warnery also highly appreciated the coordination and determination of the Hanoi Municipal Department of Culture and Sports in organising a series of activities from late April to early June and preparing for the second session in 2025.
On behalf of Vietnamese artists, photographers and curators Nguyen The Son and Le Nguyen Duy Phuong briefly and fully shared about typical exhibitions and sideline events, discussions on the visual arts and support to promote the manufacturing industry, a pilot programme to exploit reflections and photo printing techniques on lacquer.
Although over the past years, photography events in the localities have still taken place regularly, Photo Hanoi'23 was held with a large scale and high professionalism. Through the event, contemporary photography art has been fully realised as a panoramic and multi-dimensional picture for not only viewers but also the whole art practice community.
For example, a series of exhibitions with the theme of Hanoi introduced beautiful and rare photos of the capital city through the lens of photographers of diverse nationalities and ages, such as: “Hanoi – a city in photography”, “Hanoi 1985-2015: Forgotten years”, “Ten years of exposure”, and “Then and Now: Changed streets of Hanoi”.
In addition, the artistic images of other countries and cultures also brought the public many new experiences and insights. The typical exhibitions were “Robert Doisneau” introducing the works by one of the most famous photographers in France, “50 years - 50 photos” about Argentina, “Small stories in Japan” about the life and people of the land of cherry blossoms, and “Teatros” about old cinemas in Havana (Cuba).
Moreover, if the exhibition “Fashion Photography” highlighted the uniqueness of a particular type of photography associated with a cultural trend of society, the exhibition “Road to the Olympics 2024” honoured the performances and spirit of the biggest sports event on the planet through the eyes of AFP reporters.
From the colourful space of the exhibitions, Vietnamese and international professional photographers had an interesting "dialogue" through many typical works, unique techniques and ways of display and promotion.
For young people who have been pursuing a photography career in Vietnam, Photo Hanoi'23 offered an overview of a professional photography environment that has been approaching the world.
For the capital city’s citizens and visitors, this was a chance for them to explore many aspects of photography art, as well as enjoy the works of many famous photographers.
Notably, within the framework of the Photo Hanoi'23, a wide variety of forums and discussions on many core issues of photography were held, such as “Photography: International festivals and market opportunities”, “Photography art in higher education”, “Photographic techniques and applications in life”, and “New voices of Vietnamese photography”, etc.
Photography is a part of fine arts, along with paintings, sculpture, and graphics. It has crept into all activities of life and image creation has also been contributing to the cultural industry development in Vietnam. However, photography in Vietnam has only been popularised with two genres, including documentary and commercial photography, for a long time, but it has not received great attention for development and training as an art genre.
Through the seminars, managers, artists, and educators shared experiences and proposed solutions for building a photography market, taking advantage of effects from cultural-art events, strengthening cooperation between domestic and international artists, and expanding the research and teaching of photography art.
Although it is difficult to immediately assess the effects of Photo Hanoi'23 in a comprehensive manner, most domestic and foreign experts believed that this is an effective channel to widely promote and increase the attractiveness of the localities.
In the world, some of the top film festivals have created brands for the host cities, such as Cannes (France), Venice (Italy) and Busan (the Republic of Korea).
Similarly, the famous biennale international art festivals have been also associated with host cities such as Berlin (Germany), Sydney (Australia), and Paris (France). For photography, Asia alone has three prestigious biennales including Kyotographie (Japan), Objectifs (Singapore) and Photo Phnom Penh (Cambodia).
Experienced French photographer Philippe Marinig, who organised his solo exhibition at Photo Hanoi'23, said over many weeks and months, artists, curators, collectors and tourists from many parts of the world will gather in the host city of the biennale. That locality will earn revenue from shopping and consumption. The biennale is a good opportunity to promote the culture, people and the land of the host country.
The journey of Photo Hanoi'23 ended, but the beautiful resonance still lingers as cultural-creative sites in the capital city have received more attention and young talents in the field of photography have been inspired and gained more opportunities.
The ecosystem for photography has also been clearly formed with artists, galleries, curators, collectors, critics, and the public.
If the success of this year’s event is promoted, the Photo Hanoi'25 promises to feature new ideas and new looks of photography.
