Milwaukee Photographer Dennis Darmek Revisits Vietnam

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Milwaukee’s Dennis Darmek has had a full career as photographer, video artist and documentarian with work featured on PBS, in film festivals and in the collections of the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Museum of Wisconsin Art and elsewhere. For the past several years, he’s worked on a book of captioned photographs that reflect on an earlier period of his life. It’s just been published.

Crossing the DMZ revisits Vietnam, where he did a one-year tour with the U.S. Marines (1969-1970). The book is not a memoir but a visual remembrance of 40 Marines who lost their lives in the war. Darmek traveled to Vietnam with snapshots of the 40 Marines, some taken before they joined up, others in full dress, and approached Vietnamese people he encountered. He posed them holding one of those snapshots and took their pictures in a sort of bittersweet reproachment.

The handsomely produced coffee table book reveals the diversity of the Vietnamese Darmek photographed. Some look like young people anywhere in today’s world, others wear the conical straw hats traditional to the country’s farmers, others are dressed Friday casual or out for a fancy dinner. There are monks in saffron colored robes and a major in the deep green uniform of the Vietnamese Peoples Army, the war’s victors (albeit he was probably unborn when Saigon fell).

The individuality of each face, American and Vietnamese, shows through, although it must be said that Darmek’s artistry of color and composition is categorically different than the anonymously produced studio shots of the Americans.

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Darmek will discuss Crossing the DMZ on Friday, Oct. 14, 6:30 p.m. at Boswell Books. When asked his reason for joining the Marines, he replied, “Does an 18-year-old need a reason? I was curious, impetuous and looking for an experience other than the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The world of the Marine Corps had more attraction than the classroom. Some people need a gap year, or two, before college—mine was in Vietnam.” The conversation continued …

What stands out from your Vietnam War experience?

How lucky I was—Your fate could be determined by what unit you were assigned to and that unit’s mission. Someone with bad luck gets sent to a company with the nickname “the walking dead,” the tough jobs and trouble always follows. Que Son valley was a free fire zone with plenty of danger, but my assignment to headquarters made me “lucky.”

I remember the great friendships, which continue to this day. Perhaps the hardest part of going to Vietnam was coming home. My friends and family had many questions that didn’t get asked; I didn’t know how to talk about Vietnam, so we shared an awkward silence. This became a time to forget that Vietnam ever happened and lasted for many years.

Did serving in Vietnam influence your photography? Change the way you saw the world?

I can’t say service in Vietnam influenced my photography, it was several years later before I became serious about photography. I didn’t possess much of a world view before the Marines, but the experience opened the doors to a much wider world for me. Spending time in Vietnam, Japan and Okinawa nurtured a curiosity in the world.

Being a kid from a small Wisconsin town (Port Washington), I fondly remember hanging with “brothers” from Detroit, “Chicanos” from Texas, and an Apache from Arizona. It was an education in life that I wasn’t getting at college.

What inspired your Vietnam book?

Vietnam remains the great American mystery. How could a generation blessed with so much talent and energy get it so wrong? Over time, our memories of Vietnam have been reduced to a few broad strokes. Over my lifetime, veterans have evolved from being baby killers to being celebrated on Honor Flights and thanked for our service. Most Americans only “know” Vietnam from the movies (something you are familiar with). As John Ford told us in Liberty Valence, “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend”. Almost three million Americans served in Vietnam. I believe their stories are unique and we should try to remember that.

This was a five-year project and did not begin as a book. Initially, it was a photo project intended for galleries and museums. I spent one month shooting in Vietnam in 2017. Groups of these photos were exhibited by many galleries around the country. The photos were selected on their own merit, but I felt the stories of the people were being left out. Galleries typically allow for only a title card on the wall next to the photo. I realized a book would be the best platform to present the photos and stories. Right before the pandemic, I spent another month shooting in Vietnam in 2020. I began writing and design work a little over a year ago. Self-publishing allowed me to make several drafts, and the book started to find its final version this past spring.

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The generation that lived through the Vietnam War, in the military and at home, is aging. Time has a way of shaping memories. I’m intrigued with memory: what we remember and how we remember.

I wanted to remember some of the guys who didn’t come home. And using some of that “luck” again, I was able to collaborate with Vietnamese living there now. I was inspired by the faces of the Marines in the portraits from the 1960s. Teenagers filled with life, confident and cocky, wanting to appear a little older and tougher, and proud to wear the uniform. The portraits from the 1960s bring them to life in a way that their names on the Wall or the epithet “Vietnam” on the cemetery tombstones do not.

I was encouraged by the Vietnamese who agreed to be photographed; they surprised me with their generosity and empathy for the project. I was inspired by the creative challenge and how I could use photography to remember.

Having spent my life using cameras (still, film and video) to try and understand the world, this was my opportunity to use my photos and words and invite people to think about Vietnam.

How did you choose the Vietnamese in the pictures?

Sometimes I think they chose me …

The Vietnamese were strangers to me, and the photographs come from chance encounters. I wandered and watched, approaching people who caught my eye, perhaps we exchanged a smile. I gestured with my camera asking for permission. If the encounter felt right, I would give them my cards written in Vietnamese, explaining the project, asking for their name and background. I was impressed with the Vietnamese sense of portraiture. At times I was told to move to a certain position, as they posed for me. The photos in the book became a very interesting process of non-verbal collaboration.

I can never know what they were thinking, but their willingness to be photographed gave me a positive response. They were friendly, polite, respectful, and very curious. Especially when they learned I was a veteran of the war. I carried the flash cards and a photo of myself from 1970. Many of my subjects wanted to keep my snapshot, which surprised me. Unfortunately, never anticipating this, I only had the one copy. Several exchanged email addresses with me and we continue to keep in touch.