The boy "colors memories"

TPO - Starting his career as a marketing employee for a company in Hai Duong, but then the young man Phung Quang Trung decided to quit his job to pursue his passion for photography, establishing a group of young people with the same hobby of restoring old photos (Skyline group) to give to relatives of martyrs and heroic Vietnamese mothers.

The first photos were completed by Trung and his colleagues in 2021, supporting families whose members died from COVID-19. The moment when relatives of the deceased in Ho Chi Minh City hugged the portraits and burst into tears left many emotions in the mind of young Phung Quang Trung.

Trung shared that he decided to quit his marketing job for a business in Hai Duong to pursue his passion of restoring portraits for families who do not have any.

Initially, the group had only a few members, each in a different place, some working as photographers, some as technology drivers… but all shared the same passion for photo editing and restoration. The whole group agreed to work and interact at night to facilitate each person's work.

Since then, dozens and hundreds of martyrs' relatives have sent messages to Trung and his colleagues for support in restoring the photos. In 2021-2022, the Skyline group coordinated with Hai Duong Provincial Youth Union and many other Provincial Youth Unions to implement a series of plans to restore martyrs' photos from old, blurred, and torn black and white photos.

Typical examples include the program "Martyrs' Tet" (Nghe An), presenting photos of martyr Vo Thi Sau to Hang Duong cemetery (Con Dao); presenting reconstructed photos of 10 female Youth Volunteers at Dong Loc Intersection ( Ha Tinh ), 13 martyrs of Truong Bon (Nghe An)...

Image of martyr Thai An before and after being restored by Skyline group.

Over the past time, the group has recruited many new members. The new members have been supported and trained by Trung and his colleagues in photo editing and restoration techniques and have continued to carry out a series of plans and photo donation programs.

The group's outstanding new products are "The Day of Return" (Hai Duong), "Storm-Overcoming Photo" (Lang Nu, Lao Cai ); restored photos of 65 Saigon Special Forces martyrs displayed at the Saigon Gia Dinh Special Forces Museum...

In 2017, a special wedding took place in Quang Ninh to fulfill the wish of martyr couple Bui Van Luong and Hoang Thi Hong Chiem. Relatives brought martyr Luong's portrait to the bride's house, placed it next to martyr Chiem's ​​portrait, and then took the bride's portrait to the groom's house according to the wishes of the two martyrs.

Knowing this touching story, Skyline Group restored the wedding photo simulating the portrait, then coordinated with Quang Ninh Provincial Youth Union to print a large format copy to give to the families of the two martyrs.

The wedding photo of martyr Hoang Thi Hong Chiem and martyr Bui Van Luong was restored by Skyline group based on old photos kept by the martyrs' family members.

Skyline Group cooperated with Quang Ninh Provincial Youth Union to present a wedding photo of two martyrs on the occasion of the Youth Month 2025 Launch Ceremony.

Or, in the gratitude program "Hai Duong on the day of return", Skyline Group   Learn the story of Vietnamese Heroic Mother Nguyen Thi Ngach (110 years old, Thanh Mien district, Hai Duong province) and Mr. Dang Van Tien (114 years old) with their last wish of their life, hoping that their children would return and sit together with their parents at the reunion dinner table.

Trung and his colleagues simulated a family meal of Mother Ngach and her two sons. Although there was only an old photo of martyr Dang Van Bang (born in 1947), through descriptions from relatives, Trung and his colleagues recreated a portrait of martyr Dang Ngoc Thoc (born in 1936, the eldest son of Mother Ngach) sitting at the reunion dinner table with his parents.

The photo "A Meal with Mother" was painstakingly restored by Skyline group with the portrait of two martyrs at the meal with Vietnamese Heroic Mother Nguyen Thi Ngach (Hai Duong).

Young people from Hai Duong presented Mother Nguyen Thi Ngach (110 years old) and Mr. Dang Van Tien (114 years old) with portraits of their two sons, who are martyrs.

Mr. Dang Van Tien (114 years old) was moved when he saw the color photo of his martyr son restored by the Skyline group.

Relatives of martyrs Dang Ngoc Thoc and Dang Van Bang were moved after receiving restored color photos.

In mid-August 2024, Skyline coordinated with Hai Duong Provincial Youth Union to present portraits of the two martyrs Dang Ngoc Thoc and Dang Van Bang and a large photo of "A Meal with Mother" to be hung in front of the bed so that Mother Ngach could see her children every day. Fulfilling her wish, Mother Ngach and her children were moved to recall memories with the two martyrs.

In the middle of summer 2024, a group of young people visited the heroic Vietnamese mother Le Thi Luy (102 years old, in Nam Sach district, Hai Duong). Although her eyes were blurry and her hands were shaking, when she saw the portraits of her two sons, martyrs Nguyen Ba Duong (1945-1969) and Nguyen Ba Trung (1959-1979), Mother Luy seemed to be clearer and more alert.

Constantly wiping the new photo with a towel, Mother Luy choked up with tears: "Here are my two sons, my sons are so handsome." Recalling the moment she saw her sons off, Mother Luy said that during the last meal to see them off, her son only dared to eat a little, then told her to give the rest to his siblings.

Trung shared that although the group worked day and night, there were cases where they could not restore or fulfill their wish to donate photos of martyrs to the heroic Vietnamese mothers who had passed away.

The whole group was very sad and regretful for not being able to overcome time and miss the appointment. They always told themselves to try harder and not let the regret happen again.

“For us, we are also relatives, children and grandchildren, and we want to restore and bring photos of our grandfathers, fathers and uncles back home to our families,” said Phung Quang Trung.

According to Quang Trung, the most difficult thing is to restore photos of martyrs without the original photos, having to rely on descriptions of facial features and similarities with relatives, requiring a lot of time to interact and coordinate with family and relatives.

There are photos that take months, even many months to simulate the expression, face, and eyes to have the most realistic portrait.

The Skyline team leader also shared that in the near future, the team will build a database of images and information about martyrs, not only serving the needs of the community but also contributing to educating and nurturing patriotism and responsibility of young people to society.

At the same time, the group will also increase coordination with provincial and municipal Youth Unions to connect with units, organizations, and martyrs' families nationwide, applying artificial intelligence (AI) technology to develop the ability to restore images more quickly and accurately.

Trung also hopes that in the coming time, he and his colleagues will participate more in social activities, support families of martyrs, coordinate the organization of gratitude programs, holidays, and historical anniversaries in localities, such as the programs: Finding Portraits, Return Day, Coloring Memories...

Skyline Group spent a lot of time interacting with relatives of martyr Nguyen Thanh and organizations to get information on restoring and recreating the heroic martyr Nguyen Thanh, the character Luom in To Huu's poem.

Ms. Duong Thi Huong Giang - Deputy Secretary of Hai Duong Provincial Youth Union said that initially, Skyline group was just a program of young people who wanted to show gratitude to the families of martyrs and heroic Vietnamese mothers.

Afterwards, the project’s success exceeded expectations when the Provincial Youth Union coordinated the implementation of the “Tet gratitude” program for families of martyrs. This program contributed to promoting and enhancing patriotism, urging young people to contribute to the country and homeland through practical and specific actions, especially through social security activities for the community.

This is a new and creative activity that the Youth Union at all levels in the province has coordinated with a group of young people to implement very effectively and meaningfully. The project has presented more than 200 portraits of martyrs and gifts to relatives, families of martyrs, and Vietnamese Heroic Mothers with a total value of more than 400 million VND.

In 2025, many important events of the Party, State and locality will take place. Hai Duong Provincial Youth Union continues to coordinate with groups of young people to carry out projects to restore and present martyrs' portraits, aiming to spread humanistic meaning to many groups of people nationwide.

Phung Quang Trung's achievements:

- Certificate of merit from the Executive Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union of Hai Duong province

- Certificate of merit from the Executive Committee of Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union of Phu Yen province

- Certificate of Merit from the Director of People's Army Cinema

Source: https://tienphong.vn/chang-trai-to-mau-ky-uc-post1721598.tpo