IN THE SOUTH OF CHOLON

Ho Chi Minh City, with its six million residents the largest city in Vietnam, is burdened with history. Under its original name of Saigon, it came under French colonial administration in 1859. After the French were expelled, in 1950 Saigon became the capital of South Vietnam. In 1975 the North Vietnamese Army put an end to this, and its name was changed to Ho Chi Minh City, after the former Communist leader, though many residents still call the city Saigon. Bui The Trung Nam photographed Ho Chi Minh City in taut, symmetrical images. In that way he emphasizes the dissociation which manifests itself in the chaos in the city, which he sees as a consequence of the spreading conflict between its present and past.