The beginning of photojournalism

The Dat Mui Photo Newspaper has gone through many periods, thanks to the efforts of many people. Recalling the difficult times of photo journalism is not only to help the younger generation of journalists understand, but also to respectfully express gratitude to the older generation who dedicated their efforts to the formation and development of the Dat Mui Photo Newspaper, making it a beautiful landmark of local journalism.

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• Remember the old days at Dat Mui Photojournalism!

According to journalist and photographer Truong Hoang Them , former Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Dat Mui Photo Newspaper and former Chairman of the Ca Mau Provincial Association of Literature and Arts: “The nature of journalism at that time was such that anyone with talent could jump right in. Thanks to their love for the profession, they overcame all obstacles, and many colleagues matured from the very beginning. Content and layout were handled directly by Kien Hung, without any established committee. Le Nguyen had to measure the dimensions of each space intended for photos on the layout before going into the darkroom to print them. Xuan Dung was in charge of printing. At that time, there wasn't even money for printing newspapers, let alone royalties; there were only allowances, not salaries. During the most difficult times, reporters volunteered, just to have news and photos published in the newspaper – they were happy without receiving royalties.”

The story of making photos

According to journalist and photographer Le Nguyen, Vice President of the Vietnam Association of Photographic Artists and former Editor-in-Chief of Dat Mui Photo Newspaper, specializing in photography and photo printing, the tools of the trade were rudimentary back then. The newspaper was published once a year during Tet (Lunar New Year), printed in black and white, with only the front and back covers printed in color. The photos on these two covers were also black and white and then colorized. Monthly, the newspaper published a poster (or billboard), mainly featuring news and photos printed in two colors, 79 x 109 cm in size, with a quantity of 500-1,000 copies depending on the event, distributed to district departments and agencies. Because of this workload, the photography department had a small workforce, only 5-7 people.

Some publications of Dat Mui Photo Newspaper from its early, difficult days.

From 1983 onwards, the newspaper was published every three months. At that time, we recruited more reporters, technicians, administrative staff, and some graduates returning from school. The high school graduates had a talent for writing but lacked professional training; most only attended news and photography classes offered by the Department of Culture and Information. They learned and worked simultaneously, guiding each other. Typically, work trips required two reporters: one to write articles and one to take photographs. There weren't enough cameras for everyone, so sometimes two or three people shared one. Film was rationed: 10 out of 36 shots had to be selected for the newspaper, posters, and documentation. Each trip was limited to no more than two rolls of film, so each time we pressed the shutter, we had to carefully consider the angle, adjust the distance, and control the lighting. Such working conditions helped to improve the skills of many photographers such as Truong Hoang Them, Lam Thanh Dam, Tran Viet Dung, Tran Quoc Tuan, Trinh Xuan Dung... who later became renowned Vietnamese photographers.

“Because we specialized in photography, the agency had a darkroom made of double-layered khaki fabric, like a mosquito net, with only a fan inside. Developing film required waking up early to let the temperature drop. Printing photos during the day, sitting in the darkroom, was impossible because it was too hot; the lamps of the photo darkroom emitted heat and the air was trapped. Every 30 minutes or so, we had to get out, soaked as if caught in the rain, but the best part was that the printed photos were beautiful, accurate in size, and accepted by the printing house,” journalist and photographer Le Nguyen recounted.

The story of newspaper printing

In the 1980s and 1990s, the Dat Mui Photo Newspaper was enthusiastically received by the people because of its beautiful printed images. Journalist and photographer Trinh Xuan Dung, former acting editor-in-chief of the Dat Mui Photo Newspaper, reflected on the difficulties of printing the newspaper, especially during the Tet holiday period when he had to stay in Saigon ( Ho Chi Minh City) for several months at a time. He recalled: “In the early days of running a newspaper, the most difficult and troublesome part was the printing process. Once, I was still at the printing house waiting until New Year's Eve, with firecrackers exploding outside, and my heart was pounding with anxiety, just hoping that the newspaper would be printed in time to be transported back to Ca Mau.”

In those difficult times, even basic printing was challenging, and early photojournalism was even harder. The sheer volume of images meant that printing facilities were selective; for example, posters were too large, and not every place could print them. Besides the newspaper, they had to do many other things to make ends meet: printing calendars, books, medical documents, etc. The person in charge of printing had to be very thorough and meticulous.

At that time, there were printing houses in the province, but they only printed using letterpress, lead type, and in black and white; old machines could still print, but the biggest difficulty was purchasing supplies, which small printing houses couldn't access. During the subsidy period, printing supplies were limited and procedures were complicated, so printing could only be done at the Tran Phu Printing House (Saigon).

The newspaper was published every three months, then every two months, then every month, and gradually shortened. Each time it went to print, it took a whole month to finish. Entrusted with this important task, journalist and photographer Xuan Dung had to stay there almost all the time. “The entire editorial office only had a dozen or so people. The articles were all handwritten on paper, and only after the Editorial Board reviewed and edited them could they be typed. At that time, the office only had one typewriter and only one person used it. The image and darkroom work was handled by Le Nguyen. The articles and photos were compiled, preliminary sketches of ideas and layouts were presented, and then sent to Saigon to find artists to complete the layout. At that time, it was also just hand-drawn, which was time-consuming. Sometimes it was impossible to estimate; after the typesetting was done, if we wanted to remove something, we had to take everything apart and rearrange it,” Mr. Dung recounted.

Having worked at the photojournalism agency since 1981, Mr. Trinh Xuan Dung recalled: “At that time, I wasn't a reporter or an editor. I just fixed whatever wasn't right, dedicating all my energy, sometimes staying up all night to keep up with the work schedule. Everyone in the agency worked together to meticulously attend to every detail, from the smallest things. For example, to get a beautiful masthead that would be used permanently later, it had to go through four design, use, and revision processes. Back then, even the headlines had to be hand-drawn by an artist on glossy paper. Late printing was common; sometimes we had to beg the printing house to let us take the newspapers home first and pay later. Luckily, I became familiar with everyone from the security guard to the director, so the printing house was very understanding.”

The story of early days in business.

According to Mr. Trinh Xuan Dung, the person who contributed to the early "financial stability" of Dat Mui Photo Newspaper, along with his colleagues, was journalist and photographer Truong Hoang Them. He worked and created photographs for Dat Mui Photo Newspaper, and was admitted to the Vietnam Association of Photographic Artists at the same time as journalist Le Nguyen. Before transferring to the Provincial Association of Literature and Arts , he devoted himself to the newspaper's finances, paperwork, administrative organization, and management. According to Mr. Truong Hoang Them: "The greatest benefit was the attention and support of the provincial leaders, which allowed the newspaper to operate well. In the beginning, all current events and news of the year were concentrated in the spring issue, rather than being published regularly, due to insufficient funding. Therefore, the remaining time was spent on events and propaganda requests. Because the newspaper was published less frequently, posters were published more often, and the most enjoyable thing was seeing people decorating their homes with them."

At that time, photojournalism had three sources of revenue: the province provided shrimp, which was exchanged for paper; opportunities to train photographers for other countries were combined with taking photos for profit; and the strength of photography was used to print and sell calendars, most commonly single-page or seven-page calendars.

From temporary licenses serving specific propaganda needs, to a new phase where domestic journalism, especially in Ho Chi Minh City, began to develop, photojournalism required licenses and regular publication to make it easily accessible to readers. Recalling the two weeks spent in Hanoi applying for a publishing license, Mr. Truong Hoang Them expressed his gratitude to Mr. Doan Thanh Vi (Ba Vi, Provincial Party Secretary) and Mr. Tran Trong Tan, then Head of the Central Ideology and Culture Department, for facilitating the process and introducing him to the Publishing Department for a license. The reason was perfectly legitimate: In the remote Ca Mau Peninsula, where people faced many difficulties, had low levels of education, and were busy with labor and production, photojournalism was deemed suitable for carrying out the task of propaganda and encouraging the people.

“Because it's primarily about images, photographers are concentrated in this unit. Ca Mau is one of the provinces with the largest number of members of the Vietnam Association of Photographic Artists, thanks to the human resources from Dat Mui Photo Newspaper, a newspaper that not only served propaganda purposes but also contributed greatly to the development of artistic photography. Now, Dat Mui Photo Newspaper belongs to the past, but there was a time when, amidst hardship and scarcity, the photo newspaper's members made significant contributions to the development of journalism and the construction of our homeland and country,” Mr. Truong Hoang Them affirmed.

Tam Hao

Source: https://baocamau.vn/buoi-dau-lam-bao-anh-a39802.html