They called the process: “putting souls into pictures.”
Located about 15 kilometers northwest of Hanoi, Lai Xa is one of four villages in Kim Chung Commune, Hoai Duc District, which will be merged with the capital next month.
It’s the only traditional photographic village nationwide and was founded by Nguyen Dinh Khanh in 1892, a Lai Xa resident who studied photography in France and who assisted Ho Chi Minh to open a photo shop during Uncle Ho’s early days in Paris.
For more than 100 years, Lai Xa people operated photo shops across the country and even spread their expertise to countries including China, the US, France and Germany.
But like many other craft villages, Lai Xa has been struggling to protect its arts.
With modern photographic technology, digital printers and computer software have replaced the traditional art of black and white.
Along with that, urbanization has hit Hanoi’s outskirts hard.
Youngsters, who no longer find traditional photography appealing, flock to the capital seeking other types of employment.
Nguyen Van Thang, the village head for the past four years, has witnessed all of these changes.
In 2002, he saw the first Lai Xa villager receive land compensation from the government.
It’s estimated that the village has lost 61 hectares out of its 94 hectares of rice paddies since 2001.
“Changes to a more urban type of lifestyle are unavoidable considering
Lai Xa’s location on the edge of Hanoi,” Thang said.
“It’s no longer a village in its purest form: with bamboo trees, fish lakes and birds singing. And some people are missing that.”
Thang said the village has become an emerging market itself.
Lai Xa villagers, who sold their land and rice fields to the government for industrial parks and highway construction, have turned to make money from renting rooms and providing other services to the 2,000 college students and workers who reside there temporarily.
Apartment buildings, Internet cafes, karaoke parlors and photocopy shops keep popping up.
Piles of bricks and cement are scattered near the entrance gate to the village.
“The residents used to have to bring their vegetables and fruits to sell in Cau Giay District’s market but now that’s not the case.
They can sell them right in front of their houses,” Thang said.
“Amidst all these changes, some residents are sensing the profits.”
Thang pointed out a neighboring family, who has four or five tenants.
But more people means more work for a village head: asking residents to dump trash at the right place, reconciling husband-wife conflicts or even convincing drug-addicted youngsters to go to a rehabilitation center.
Only seven families in Lai Xa Village are keeping the craft alive.
Nguyen Minh Nhat, 61 years old, is one of them.
He owns a photo shop on one of the busiest streets of the village, part of Highway 32.
Nhat is famous for portraiture and is a third-generation black and white photographer.
Nhat said he was lucky to convince his three grown-up children to follow the same path.
“Customers now are less strict than in the old days,” he said.
“Years ago, we only took and processed about three or four portraits a day. The procedures could be daunting. Now things are much quicker.”
Nhat said though technology has allowed photographers to produce portraits that appear beautiful, it can’t replace their eyes and ability to look into a person’s character.
Though the village is still operating a photography school named after founder Nguyen Dinh Khanh, Nhat said it only remains as a place to exchange ideas among the village’s “last few photographic artists.”
“Some of the ones I hired for my photo shop left because they couldn’t bear the salaries,” Nhat explained.
“Some were not patient enough to learn the art.”
Pham Thanh, a former member of Vietnam’s Association of Photography Artists and dubbed by a local newspaper as “the king of the dark room,” credited his skills to the days when he learned from Lai Xa people in a photo shop in Ha Dong Town, Ha Tay Province.
The 71-year-old was the son of a dark room photo artist in the Paris Photo shop, which was opened by founder Dinh Khanh.
Thanh who followed in his father’s footsteps is well known for his ability to restore photographs, including those of former Communist Party Chief Truong Chinh, General Vo Nguyen Giap, acclaimed photographer Vo An Ninh, and pictures taken during the war.
“Obviously now photography has become a big business,” Thanh said in his house in Hanoi’s Truong Chinh Street.
“But when it comes to producing black and white, honest images that could last for a long time, the previous generations at Lai Xa were truly masters.”
Reported by Huong Le |
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