A photo at the exhibition Thấu Cảm – Chuyện chưa kể (Sharing- Untold Stories) by veteran artist Lê Hồng Linh of HCM City. The event features 108 black-and-white and colour photos highlighting rural women and children in daily life. Images displaying Vietnamese culture and lifestyle are also featured. — Photo courtesy of the organiser

HCM CITY — A photo exhibition about Việt Nam and its people by veteran artist Lê Hồng Linh, who has 30 years of experience in the industry, is opening in HCM City’s Youth Cultural House to raise funds for poor students.

The event, called Thấu Cảm – Chuyện chưa kể (Sharing - Untold Stories), features 108 black-and-white and colour photos highlighting rural women and children in daily life. Images displaying Vietnamese culture and lifestyle are also featured. 

The event includes a series of colour photos capturing famous landscapes and historic sites. 

“My love for my country and people has increased. Through his lens, Việt Nam is so beautiful,” said Võ Quỳnh Trang, a student at the HCM City University of Law, who visited the exhibition. 

Linh's photos are on sale to raise funds to build libraries for students in flooded areas in the central region. (Photo courtesy of the organiser)

 Linh and the event’s organiser, the HCM City Youth Cultural House, hosted a photo auction last week to raise funds for the charity programme called Thư Viện Ước Mơ (Dream Library). 

More than  VNĐ1.6 billion (US$70,000) was donated from photo sales. The money will be used to build 25 libraries for students living in flooded areas in the central region. 

Linh hopes he will raise money enough to build 60 libraries for schools and cultural centres in remote provinces across the country. 

Thư Viện Ước Mơ began in 2014 and has built 36 libraries and reading areas for 18,000 students in nine cities and provinces. The programme’s creators are working to encourage more organisers and individuals to become involved in the charity. 

To join the online auction, visit the programme’s website empathy.vn. 

Linh is a mechanical engineer from the central Quảng Ngãi Province. He worked as a lecturer in engineering at several colleges in HCM City.  He has been awarded over 400 international photography prizes and medals, dozens of honorary titles, and was a jury member at international photography contests eight times.

His has organised solo and group exhibitions in 11 countries.

"I love capturing the happiness, sorrow, hatred, smiles, crying, worry and astonishment of children throughout Việt Nam, which I believe will fade away rapidly with urban modernisation and expansion," said Linh. 

The exhibition, Thấu Cảm – Chuyện chưa kể, is being held at 4 Phạm Ngọc Thạch Street in District 3. It will close on November 31. — VNS