Vietnamese Women the Focus of Grohmann Museum Exhibit

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“I spent 20 years not thinking about it. Every veteran has a different process of handling Vietnam,” says Dennis Darmek. But since 1990 he has devoted a good deal of attention to the subject. His new photography exhibition at the Grohmann Museum, “Crossing the DMZ: A Contemporary Look at Working Women,” is part three of what has turned into his “Vietnam Trilogy.”

Much like coming to terms with his service as a Marine in the Vietnam War, the Trilogy was a long time coming. Part one was his 1990 documentary, “Crossing the DMZ,” broadcast on PBS. He shot it at a time when travel by U.S. citizens to Vietnam was illegal and the country’s Communist regime remained wary. He rendezvoused with four other ex-G.I.s in Bangkok, crossed the border and was given a carefully-guided tour by three Vietnamese handlers. He took video on a small camera without informing suspicious Vietnamese officials about doing a documentary. “It didn’t look professional—it looked like something a tourist might have,” Darmek remembers. Even so, Vietnamese authorities insisted on examining the film before allowing him to leave.

Part two of the Trilogy was his handsomely produced coffee table book, Crossing the DMZ, published in 2022. Photographs for the book were taken on Darmek’s 2017 trip to Vietnam (American tourists were welcome by that time). Darmek traveled to the country with snapshots of 40 Marines who lost their lives in the war and approached Vietnamese people he encountered. He posed each of them holding one of those snapshots and took their pictures in a sort of bittersweet reproachment.

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Part three, the exhibit at the Grohmann, are photos culled from that same 2017 trip but focused on the faces of women he encountered working outdoors in a variety of settings, including marketplaces, construction sites and farms. The women are old and young, wearing western clothing or the traditional conical hats of rice farmers. “The development of modern Vietnam is as much on the shoulders of women as men,” Darmek says. “Vietnam wouldn’t have defeated the French at Dien Bien Phu if not for women porters carrying heavy weapons and they fought alongside men in the wars against the French and the Americans.

“I was amazed at how generous the women were with their time,” he continues. “They had no problem stopping their work and letting me takes their pictures.” Darmek doesn’t speak Vietnamese and the people he encountered spoke no English, but as he says, “That’s the beauty of the camera. It’s an international language. I hold it up and the person can either hold their hands up or smile and nod yes.”

Darmek’s 1990 documentary will be running on a screen as part of the Grohmann exhibit. “This provides the gallery visitor with a visual time capsule of a new nation cautiously opening to the outside world,” he says. “The reunification of North and South Vietnam was not a romantic revolution or peaceful transition: there were winners and losers. Millions of people had died during the war and the people of South Vietnam were punished for their collaboration with the United States. I found a nation struggling economically and suffering from the trauma of a bloody civil war. Despite an American led economic boycott, Vietnam was committed to a culture of hard work and national pride. This video was the beginning of a journey that became a search for understanding and a personal reconciliation with Vietnam.”

“Crossing the DMZ: A Contemporary Look at Working Women” runs May 9-Aug. 23 at the Grohmann Museum, 1000 N. Broadway. Opening reception is Thursday, May 9, 5-8 p.m.