Overview

Vietnam is an ancient and beautiful land, with a deep history of occupational conflict that remains an enigma in Americans' collective memory. It is still easy to forget that Vietnam is a country and not a war, even as America's role in Vietnam inflamed and divided the American citizenry in ways that are still evident today. It is as if Vietnam's civil war resurrected our own. And if you are a Vietnam War veteran or a family member of a vet, it's worse, because, even after a half-century, many of the wounds won't heal. What do you do when you have given up on forgetting? Chuck Forsman is one of a sizable number of aging Vietnam vets who have found deep satisfaction in revisiting Vietnam, supporting charities, orphanages, and clinics, doing volunteer work and more - anything to redeem what the U.S. military did there. He is also a renowned painter and photographer who depicts places and environments in ways that become unforgettable visual experiences for the contemporary viewer. Lost in Vietnam chronicles a journey, not a country. They were taken on visits averaging two months each and two-year intervals over a decade. Forsman traveled largely by motorbike throughout the country - south, central, and north - sharing his experiences through amazing photographs of Vietnam's lands and people. His visual journey of one such veteran's twofold quest: the one for redemption and understanding, and the other to make art. The renowned Le Ly Hayslip introduces the book and sets the table for Forsman's incredible sojourn. AUTHOR: Chuck Forsman is Professor of Art Emeritus at the University of Colorado, where he taught painting. 112 photographs

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9781938086571

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"""What a remarkable set of photographs! Chuck Forsman's exploration of Vietnam, of getting lost in Vietnam, captures strikingly the beauty of human life and livelihood in a landscape many of us once reviled and worked to destroy and to which so many Vietnam vets have been drawn back again and again to ease our culpability. Le Ly Hayslip's emotional understanding of attachment to place uniquely frames the photos of her motherland, and every picture tells a story of people struggling daily for means to survive and to fashion meaning in their lives. Lost in Vietnam is that rare book that heals even as it enlightens.""--Joseph S. Wood, Senior Scholar, American Geographical Society, author of The New England Village, and combat engineer in Vietnam, 1970-1971 ""Forsman's work is remarkable for its curiosity and its respect for the people and culture of Vietnam...""-- ""The VVA Veteran"""

What a remarkable set of photographs! Chuck Forsman's exploration of Vietnam, of getting lost in Vietnam, captures strikingly the beauty of human life and livelihood in a landscape many of us once reviled and worked to destroy and to which so many Vietnam vets have been drawn back again and again to ease our culpability. Le Ly Hayslip's emotional understanding of attachment to place uniquely frames the photos of her motherland, and every picture tells a story of people struggling daily for means to survive and to fashion meaning in their lives. Lost in Vietnam is that rare book that heals even as it enlightens. --Joseph S. Wood, Senior Scholar, American Geographical Society, author of The New England Village, and combat engineer in Vietnam, 1970-1971

What a remarkable set of photographs! Chuck Forsman's exploration of Vietnam, of getting lost in Vietnam, captures strikingly the beauty of human life and livelihood in a landscape many of us once reviled and worked to destroy and to which so many Vietnam vets have been drawn back again and again to ease our culpability. Le Ly Hayslip's emotional understanding of attachment to place uniquely frames the photos of her motherland, and every picture tells a story of people struggling daily for means to survive and to fashion meaning in their lives. Lost in Vietnam is that rare book that heals even as it enlightens. --Joseph S. Wood, Senior Scholar, American Geographical Society, author of The New England Village, and combat engineer in Vietnam, 1970-1971 Forsman's work is remarkable for its curiosity and its respect for the people and culture of Vietnam... -- The VVA Veteran

Author Information

Chuck Forsman was born in Idaho in 1944 and raised in eastern Oregon and northern California. He received his B.A. in art in 1967 and his M.F.A. in painting 1971 from the University of California at Davis. Forsman was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1967 and sent to Vietnam in 1968–1969, where he served as an illustrator and photo correspondent and earned a Bronze Star Medal. After Vietnam he attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine in 1970 and in 1971 began to teach painting at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he received three Faculty Fellowships and retired in 2008 as a professor of art. He has also received three National Endowment for the Arts grants, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, and numerous other awards and honors. Forsman's work is included in more than twenty permanent collections, including the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Denver Art Museum, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Knoxville Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Nevada Museum of Art, Phoenix Art Museum, Princeton University Museum of Art, University of Wyoming Art Museum, Wichita Art Museum, and Yellowstone Art Museum, among others. He has three published books: Arrested Rivers (University Press of Colorado, 1994), a book of his paintings that are critical of the over-damming of the West; Western Rider: Views from a Car Window (Center for American Places, 2003), a book of black-and-white photographs taken throughout the West; and Along Buddha's River (2011), a self-published book of color photographs taken by Forsman and his daughter, Shannon Forsman, while they followed the Mekong River from near its source on the Tibetan Plateau to the South China Sea. Chuck Forsman continues to produce paintings and photographs from his home in Boulder, Colorado, based on travels primarily in the American West and Southeast Asia. Mr. Forsman is credited with being among the first artists to link landscape painting and environmental issues. Le Ly Hayslip is a writer, philanthropist, and humanitarian whose life has been documented in Oliver Stone’s film Heaven and Earth. She is the author of two path-breaking memoirs, When Heaven and Earth Changed Places (Doubleday, 1989) and Child of War, Woman of Peace (Doubleday, 1993).

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