People flocking to General Vo Nguyen Giap's house at 30 Hoang Dieu Street these days cannot ignore a special portrait of the beloved General made from a collage of thousands of smaller photos hung near his altar.
People flocking to General Vo Nguyen Giap's house at 30 Hoang Dieu Street these days cannot ignore a special portrait of the beloved General made from a collage of thousands of smaller photos hung near his altar.
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| Picturing greatness: Painter Nguyen Minh (right) and General Giap's eldest son Vo Dien Bien next to a photo-collage portrait of General Giap made by Minh using 8,800 smaller photos of the general. |
The colossal work was the creation of painter Nguyen Minh from Dong Nai province, who has gathered 8,800 photos of the general taken throughout his life to make up a collage portrait of the military genuis himself measuring 1.2m by 1.6m.
Minh has gathered photos for many years from various sources including photo exhibitions and books about the life of the general, who passed away on October 4.
He has also travelled to many of the country's biggest libraries to collect rare photos, sometimes paying for the photos with his own money.
In 2011, after gathering a large number of photos, Minh began fitting them together to create his portrait. The task took him six months.
"The first challenging task was cutting each photos down to between 1-1.5 sq.cm while still keeping the original context and key characters in the photos," he recalled. "The colours in each of the small photos also have to suit the colour or shade necessary to form the details of the larger portrait.
"For example, when making up his eyes, small photos with the most beautiful colours and brightest light had to be chosen to represent the eyes and vision of the general."
The small photos selected for the portrait include images from the general's childhood, his actions during revolutions, his meetings with international friends and even events from his daily life.
The large portrait was given to the general on his 100th birthday celebration in August 2011, and it has hung in the living room of the general's house ever since.
(Source: VNS)
