April 1975   
Phnom Penh – Saigon  

Our exhibition, April 1975, Phnom Penh – Saigon will open at The VII Foundation Arles on Monday, July 7, 2025, at 1800 CET as part of a diverse lineup of public events at The VII Foundation Arles to coincide with the 2025 Rencontres d’Arles ProWeek.

The signature exhibition at the Prix Correspondents de Guerre in Bayeux late last year, April 1975, Phnom Penh – Saigon examines the lives and work of the journalists who covered the end of the wars in Cambodia and Vietnam in April 1975.

Curated by The VII Foundation’s Executive Director Gary Knight and reporter and author Jon Swain, the exhibition features photographs, written accounts, and ephemera belonging to the reporters who covered the victory of communist forces. Producer Ziyah Gafic includes images printed on fabric banners, newspaper clippings, and objects such as Françoise Demulder’s camera and Jon Swain’s defaced passport to create an immersive experience of those tumultuous final days of the wars.

Over one hundred photographs taken by dozens of photographers are included. Images widely published in western media — like Hugh van Es’ U.S. helicopter evacuation from the top of a building in Saigon, and Thai Khac Chuong’s American official punching a man trying to board an aircraft out of the city — contrast with the 16-page spread that Japanese magazine Asahi Graph published of their reporter Naoki Mabuchi’s work, “20 Days in Phnom Penh”, and copies of archival pages of the Vietnam News Agency.

“Inevitably, the job of war reporting entails the sacrifice of journalists’ lives. So it was in Cambodia and Vietnam,” says Jon Swain. “I see this exhibition as a way of honouring all those journalists who were killed in the war, hailing from across the world, young, old, men and women whose names are inscribed on the wall at the entrance of the exhibition.

“From my perspective this is a story about how journalism is made by a legendary — almost mythical — generation of journalists who were working in the heyday of the press,” says Gary Knight. “At few times in history has the press had such a powerful impact on policy, or such a strong relationship with the public than they did by the time the wars in Cambodia and Vietnam came to an end. This generation of journalists established the benchmark for those that followed. In this exhibition, we seek to humanize the people who reported from the field; we champion their strengths and reveal their humanity and their fragility. In so doing, we also seek to celebrate with parity the Vietnamese and Cambodian journalists who were often overlooked, many of whom lost their lives.”

PLAN YOUR VISIT

Location:
The VII Foundation Arles
49 Quai de la Roquette, 13200 Arles, France

Entry:
Free entry

Contact:
[email protected]

Press Contact:
[email protected]