HCM CITY — Minh Lộc, a former photojournalist with Vietnam News Agency, is celebrating the 42nd anniversary of Liberation Day with a showcase of his photos of soldiers and citizens who took part in the resistance war against the US.

The Những Khoảnh Khắc Lịch Sử (Historical Moments) exhibition displays 138 photos taken from 1962 to 1984.

The photos were taken during the resistance war against the US in Quảng Ninh and Quảng Bình provinces and Hà Nội during the 1962-1972 period and in Sài Gòn until 1975.

The highlights of the exhibition are images shot on April 30, 1975, Liberation Day.

The event also includes photos of the war fought by Vietnamese to protect the northern border in 1979.

In 1980, Lộc, now 80, and several colleagues visited places where they travelled during the war in northern provinces, and then took numerous photos about the life of people after the war. They are also displayed at the exhibition.

Thrilling stuff: Visitors look at photos taken by Minh Lộc displayed at the Những Khoảnh Khắc Lịch Sử (Historical Moments) exhibition. — VNS Photo Phương Mai

Speaking at the exhibition’s opening ceremony yesterday, Lộc said: “When I die, I can’t bring the photo collection with me, so I hope the museum can preserve them.”

“As a photographer, I wanted to preserve the images so that younger generations can know more about the country’s history,” he said.

Lộc, whose real name is Nguyễn Minh Lộc, was born in 1937 in Đồng Tháp’s Cao Lãnh District, and is a member of the Việt Nam Artistic Photographers’ Association.

Since 1975, he has had 69 solo exhibitions on various topics, including Việt Nam’s landscapes and red-headed cranes.

He won the first prize in the Moscow News Contest in 1968, a silver medal in the Iraq Photo Contest organised by the International Journalists Association in 1978, and the grand prix from the Trade Union Council of the Soviet Union in 1978.

In 1990, he received a prize for excellence from the Red Cross and Red Crescent of the Soviet Union.

The exhibition will be open through April 30 at the museum at 2 Lê Duẩn Street in District 1. — VNS