Il 31 Gennaio del 2004 un gruppo vietnamita per i diritti delle vittime di guerra intenta una causa contro le aziende produttrici dell’Agent Orange, un erbicida usato dagli USA per irrorare i campi di battaglia durante la guerra del Vietnam, col duplice scopo di impedire all’esercito vietnamita di rifugiarsi nelle foreste e di distruggere le culture che rappresentavano la loro principale fonte di approvvigionamento. Si stima che tra il ’61 ed il ’71 gli Stati Uniti abbiano riversato sul Vietnam circa 46 milioni di litri di Agente Arancio.
L’Agente Arancio
L’Agente Arancio conteneva TCDD, sostanza che ha causato tumori e malformazioni sia nella popolazione vietnamita che nei veterani di guerra statunitensi. La TCDD è una delle diossine più pericolose e si ritiene che sia entrata massicciamente in contatto con flora e fauna solo in due casi: durante la guerra del Vietnam e in conseguenza del disastro di Seveso.
Le diossine sono una famiglia di sostanze che possono persistere in ambiente anche 20 anni, ma ancora nel 2017 circa il 40% del territorio vietnamita era classificato come sterile, il 4% delle donne incinte riscontravano problemi di malformazione del feto e circa il 6% dei bambini presentavano malformazioni congenite.
Agent Orange: Collateral Damage in Vietnam di Philip Jones Griffiths
Philip Jones Griffiths, fotografo gallese, nel 1966 entra a far parte dell’agenzia Magnum e decide di raccontare ciò che sta accadendo in Vietnam:
Decisi che la cosa più importante da fare fosse appassionarsi a qualcosa, e non c’era bisogno di essere un genio nel ’66 per capire che in Vietnam stava accadendo qualcosa di veramente importante
Il suo obiettivo rimarrà puntato sul Sud Est Asiatico per oltre trent’anni, raccontando la guerra, le sue contraddizioni e la pesante eredità imposta alla popolazione civile.
Con Agent Orange: Collateral Damage in Vietnam, Griffiths ci sbatte in faccia senza troppi complimenti tutto l’orrore che una guerra è capace di produrre.
VIETNAM. Cam Nghia. Le Thi Dat, thirteen, suffers from spina bifida and mental retardation. She is inseparable from her doll. She was born in neary Quang Tri Hospital, “very weak”. Her mother, Le Thi Thuyen, 49, carries her outside most sunny days while she hoes her garden nearby. Her father was a soldier in the Saigon army during the war, stationed near Cam Nghia. 1998
VIETNAM. Cam Nghia. TRAN Ngoc Tang is cared for by his mother, NGUYEN Thi Hai. Tang, eight, has spina bifida. His father Tran Ngoc Lo was sprayed in Cam Nghia as a child. 1998
VIETNAM. Hanoi. The physical therapy room at the Peace Village Hospital. 2002
VIETNAM. Ho Chi Minh City. Deformed fetuses preserved in formaldehyde at the Tu Du Hospital.1998
VIETNAM. Ho Chi Minh City. NGUYEN Viet-Duc, born at Gia Lai, Kontum, on February 25, 1981. They were conjoined at the pelvis, with one anus, one penis, one urinary tract, one bladder, two kidneys, and three legs. They are one of the many sets of Siamese twins at the Tu Du Hospital. These boys are seven years old and Viet (on right) is brain dead. They were eventually separated by a team of Japanese doctors. 1987
VIETNAM. Cam Nghia. 1998. TRAN Van Lam, ten, is mentally retarded and has difficulty walking. His older brothers, TRAN Van Thuan and TRAN Van Hoang also suffer from malformed legs. Their father built them a bamboo walkway to help strengthen their limbs.
L’Oscura Odissea di Griffiths
Dark Odissey è un viaggio lungo 40 anni che ha portato Griffiths ad attraversare 140 paesi. Un ritratto delle contraddizioni di un’epoca, la seconda metà del novecento, che mescola amore, morte, frivolezza, politica e violenza, lanciando un messaggio che non è mai stato tanto attuale come oggi:
Ho viaggiato per oltre 140 paesi cercando di dare un senso a tutto questo. Ho scoperto che quasi tutte le mie convinzioni crollavano se sottoposte a un esame minuzioso. La verità spesso è solo uno strumento che serve per l’obiettivo di qualcun altro.
GB. WALES. This young boy epitomizes our Welsh ambivalent love for both rugby and music. This place, Pant-y-Wean, was once, in the 1930s, voted the most Beautiful Village in South Wales, but it has long since been obliterated by opencast mining. When I asked what he was doing, he replied, “My mother gave it to me to mend.” 1961
GB.ENGLAND. Social change in the 1960s had the positive effect of taking some pressure off men to behave always in a dominant manner. Here the girl was behaving like a man. 1961
FRANCE. The confidence of youth is enhanced by wearing fashionable clothes. This allows them to deride those outside the dictates of advertisers. 1965
GB. ENGLAND. 1961. This brother and sister reacted to being photographed in a way that reveals the inherently different levels of self-esteem observable in children. She was alive with the solipsism of youth, while he was still uncertain.
MAURITIUS. A rare moment when the constituent symbols of colonialism come together in a frame. On a French sugar plantation the owner, with his dog, guide visiting priests around the garden of his mansion. 1966
PAPUA NEW GUINEA. Woman wearing a bra sold to her by missionairies to cover up her nakedness. Missionaries are obsessed with breasts. These storm troopers of cultural imperialism impose brassieres on reluctant women (although some recipients do find then useful for carrying coconuts). 1973
GB. NORTHERN IRELAND. Since ancient times, the shield has presented a challenge to military designs — how to see the enemy without sacrificing protection. The latest development is one made of Plexiglas. Unfortunately, it affords a dimmed visibility after repeated blows. 1973
GB. NORTHERN IRELAND. 1973. The incongruities of daily life in the urban war zone. For years, the people of Northern Ireland lived in a strange and strained symbiosis with the occupying British army.
CAMBODIA. In an asinine attempt to resolve the war in Vietnam, Nixon and Kissinger widened the conflict by invading Cambodia. Ostensibly this was to eliminate the Vietcong’s headquarters. The scheme failed, but the resulting bombing, which killed over 750,000 Cambodians, caused many to take up arms against their new American-backed government. 1973
GB. ENGLAND. These children were playing on a piece of spare ground where a factory once stood. They belong to the ever-increasing population of a wasteland where, for political reasons, education and opportunity are denied. 1976
THAILAND. All societies that have embraced consumerism owe a huge debt to the media for facilitating its acceptance. 1977
SOMALIA. 1980. A fighter with the West Somalia Liberation Front. To compensate for food shortages, the soldiers consumed large quantities of ‘khat’, a leaf containing an amphetamine-like substance. This gave rise to many symptoms incompatible with good soldiering, including providing the enemy with an easy target.
USA. Virginia. 1986. State prison. The American justice system directs attention away from corporate crime. A deluge of trivia about murder and mayhem is provided, sending the message that everyone is wallowing in original sin and that deliverance can only come from a strong police force. The economically deprived, mostly blacks, who turn to crime are incarcerated in ever-increasing numbers.
VIETNAM. This woman was tagged, probably by a sympathetic corpsman, with the designation VNC (Vietnamese civilian). This was unusual. Wounded civilians were normally tagged VCS (Vietcong suspect) and all dead peasants were posthumously elevated to the rank of VCC (Vietcong confirmed). 1967
VIETNAM. The battle for Saigon. U.S. policy in Vietnam was based on the premise that peasants driven into the towns and cities by the carpet-bombing of the countryside would be safe. Furthermore, removed from their traditional value system they could be prepared for imposition of consumerism. This “restructuring” of society suffered a setback when, in 1968, death rained down on the urban enclaves. 1968
VIETNAM. The battle for Saigon. Refugees under fire. Confused urban warfare was such that Americans were shooting their staunchest supporters. 1968
Fotografo e videomaker, dal 2009 si divide tra fotografia di matrimonio e documentaria.
Come documentarista ha pubblicato su National Geographic Italia, L'Espresso e riviste minori. Come matrimonialista ha avuto l’opportunità di lavorare in Italia, Francia, Germania, Inghilterra, Svizzera e Bermuda.
http://www.francescorossifotografo.it/
Questo sito Web utilizza i cookie per migliorare la tua esperienza durante la navigazione nel sito Web. Di questi cookie, i cookie classificati come necessari vengono memorizzati nel browser in quanto sono essenziali per il funzionamento delle funzionalità di base del sito Web. Utilizziamo anche cookie di terze parti che ci aiutano ad analizzare e capire come utilizzi questo sito web. Questi cookie verranno memorizzati nel tuo browser solo con il tuo consenso. Hai anche la possibilità di disattivare questi cookie. Ma la disattivazione di alcuni di questi cookie potrebbe avere un effetto sulla tua esperienza di navigazione.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
