©David Fahey Spec 4, US Army, 25th Infantry, 4th Battalion, 23rd Mechanized Infantry Brigade Vietnam and Cambodia, September 1969 – September, USO PERFORMANCE AT FIRE BASE RAWLINGS TÂY NINH PROVINCE, VIETNAM, NOVEMBER 1969

Photojournalist and documentary photographer Marissa Roth has a long photographic legacy of documenting the effects of war. She recently put down her camera to curate an unusual exhibition that shares personal photographs and stories of Vietnam veterans. The exhibition, My War: Wartime Photographs by Vietnam Veterans, contains 72 images by 22 Vietnam veterans (with more here) is on view at The Highground in Neillsville, WI until October 30, 2016, and will travel nationally in the future. A catalog of the entire exhibition is available through The Highground.

Photographer Unknown – Photo provided by: John Morrissey Colonel U.S. Air Force Vietnam 1965 – 1973, Retired 1985, THE PILOTS L-R, Capt. Tom Boatman, 1st Lt John Morrissey, Capt. Charlie Copin, Capt. Matt Kelch (Hit hard coming off a target – 50 miles directly North of Hanoi and ejected in Northern Laos – recovered), 1st Lt. Sam Waters, (took a SAM head on in ’67 KIA), Capt. Ray Moss, 1st Lt. Frank Tullo (Shot down during the 27 July SAM site mission, the only one recovered), Major Bill Hosmer. Photo taken two hours prior to the takeoff for the first mission of Rolling Thunder on March 2nd, 1965 KORAT ROYAL THAI AIR BASE, THAILAND

My War: Wartime Photographs by Vietnam Veterans
Curated by Marissa Roth

In June of 2014, my exhibition One Person Crying: Women and War opened at The Highground Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park in Neillsville, Wisconsin. While I was there for the opening, I spent quite a bit of time with June Berg, the director of their learning center. During our last dinner together, she mentioned that a number of veterans affiliated with The Highground had asked her to scan their personal pictures that they had taken in Vietnam during the war. I was immediately struck by the fact that this was an unseen perspective on that war, and that it would make a powerful exhibition.

After returning home, I couldn’t get the idea out of my head and the title and first three paragraphs of a curatorial introduction just came to me. I emailed June and shared these thoughts, proposing to curate an exhibition based on this theme of looking at this war from, ‘the inside looking out’. She immediately gave me the green light to start working on it, and sent CD’s with images by 6 different veterans. Once I saw them, I knew that the potential was there for a landmark exhibition. Over the course of the subsequent 18 months, I proceeded to get more images from her and through my own Vietnam veteran contacts. I also created an email request that was shared by veterans’ groups and occasional I would randomly receive a CD or a single snapshot in the mail.

©James Alan Jenkins E-4, USARV, 18th Engineer Brigade, 589th Battalion Vietnam April 1967 – January 1968, IN OUR HOOTCH, II CORPS BINH DIN PROVINCE, VIETNAM

I thought that it would be easy to get photographs, but found that it was much more challenging. Unlike today, where it seems everyone is a photographer with some sort of image recording device, during that war taking pictures was more of a commitment. It was expensive to buy a camera and film, and an effort to get the film processed. Most likely, a lot of the veterans who had cameras were hobby photographers or had taken pictures for high school yearbooks, etc., so also had a higher degree of skill. I also learned that a lot of Vietnam veterans who did take pictures, either didn’t want to stir up old pain-filled memories by looking at them, or had destroyed their photographs over the years as a means of purging these memories.

©Jay Arthurs SP4-E4, Company E, 1/52nd Infantry Battalion, 198th Light Infantry Brigade, Americal Division, USARV Vietnam March 1969 – April 1970, NICK HOLTSCLAW WAITING FOR A HELICOPTER OUT OF FIREBASE LZ STINSON QUANG NGAI PROVINCE, VIETNAM

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Marissa Roth is an internationally published freelance photojournalist and documentary photographer. She has worked on assignment for various prestigious publications including The New York Times and was part of The Los Angeles Times staff that won a Pulitzer Prize for Best Spot News Coverage of the 1992 Los Angeles Riots.

Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions, and a number of images are in museum, corporate and private collections. One Person Crying: Women and War, Roth’s 31-year personal photo essay that addresses the immediate and lingering impact of war on women in different countries and cultures around the world, is currently an international traveling exhibition, with a forthcoming book. Infinite Light: A Photographic Meditation on Tibet is also a current project and a traveling exhibition. The book, with a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, was released in April 2014. The Crossing, a just completed project about the Atlantic Ocean, will also be a forthcoming book and exhibition. Roth’s first exhibition as curator, My War: Wartime Photographs by Vietnam Veterans, opened at The Highground Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park in Neillsville, WI, on August 6, 2016.

A commissioned portrait project by The Museum of Tolerance/ Simon Wiesenthal Center to photograph the Holocaust survivors who volunteer there, Witness to Truth, is on permanent exhibition at the museum. Roth has three additional books to her credit; Burning Heart: A Portrait of The Philippines, Real City: Downtown Los Angeles Inside/Out, and Come the Morning, a children’s book about homelessness.

©Jay Arthurs SP4-E4, Company E, 1/52nd Infantry Battalion, 198th Light Infantry Brigade, Americal Division, USARV Vietnam March 1969 – April 1970, GROUP OF THE GUYS FROM THE MORTAR PLATOON WHO OPERATED THE 4.2 INCH MORTARS ON THE HILL LZ BAYONET, NEAR CHU LAI, VIETNAM

©Bill Noyes Sergeant E-5, 3rd Platoon, B Company, 2nd Battalion of the 22nd Regiment, 25th Infantry Division – Army Vietnam September 1968 – September 1969, COKE KID AND OUR PLATOON LEADER, LT TIMOR, WITH HIS RTO (RADIO, TELEPHONE OPERATOR) WHO WAS KNOWN AS “WATER BUFFALO” “HARD SPOT” ALONG ROUTE 239 AS IT ENTERED THE BEN CUI RUBBER PLANTATION ACROSS THE SAIGON RIVER FROM DAU TIENG, VIETNAM FEBRUARY 1969

©Richard Bergan Army, Cpl., 25th Infantry 3rd Battalion Vietnam March – October 1966, GOING ON A MISSION WITH BLACK VIRGIN MOUNTAIN IN VIEW ON THE LEFT CAMBODIA

©Michael Patrick Eltrich E-4, Company B, 1st Battalion/52nd Infantry, 198th Light Infantry Brigade, Americal Division Vietnam October 1969 – October 1970, MEN IN MY PLATOON ON A STAND DOWN WATCHING ENTERTAINMENT AT THE AMERICAL DIVISION’S BASE CAMP CHU LAI, VIETNAM JUNE 1970

©Photographer Unknown – Photo provided by: Gerald W. Lewis SP-4, Company B, 52nd Infantry, 198th Light Infantry Brigade, 23rd Infantry Division Vietnam 1970 – 1971, MYSELF DURING ADVANCED INFANTRY TRAINING IN TIGERLAND, FORT POLK, LA, AFTER RECEIVING ORDERS FOR VIETNAM 1969

©Merle Elliott Specialist 4 E-4, 198th Light Infantry Brigade, 1st Battalion/52nd Infantry, Company C 1/6, Americal Division – Earned the Combat Infantry Badge, Purple Heart and Army Commendation Medal Vietnam 7/15/1970 – 7/14/1971, MY HELMET WITH TWO BULLET HOLES FIREBASE LZ STINSON, QUANG NGAI PROVINCE, VIETNAM

©Richard Lynghaug 3rd Marine Bat. 3rd Recon Quang Tri, Vietnam February – November 1969,WOUNDED KIT KARSEN SCOUT, WAITING FOR CHOPPER MED EVAC NORTHERN I-CORP, VIETNAM 1969

©Richard Lynghaug 3rd Marine Bat. 3rd Recon Quang Tri, Vietnam February – November 1969, AFTER THE GUN SHIPS WERE CALLED IN NORTHERN I-CORP, VIETNAM 1969

©Gene Bailey 7th Battalion, 15th Field Artillery, 41st Artillery Group, First Field Force Vietnam (IFFV) Tiger Division, White Horse Division Based at Camranh Bay, Vietnam June 1967 – July 1968, LUMINOUS LIGHT AT NIGHT USED TO DETECT THE VIET CONG (VC) ACTIVITY DURING THE TET OFFENSIVE, NINH HOA, VIETNAM 1968

©Photographer Unknown – Photo Provided by: Gene Bailey 7th Battalion, 15th Field Artillery, 41st Artillery Group, First Field Force Vietnam (IFFV) Tiger Division, White Horse Division Based at Camranh Bay, Vietnam June 1967 – July 1968, A PICTURE OF ME AFTER SWIMMING IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA NEAR NINH HOA, VIETNAM 1968