Photo exhibition on Agent Orange victims opens in New York

The week-long exhibition displays 30 intimate black and white photographs revealing moments in the lives of people who continue to suffer the effects of Agent Orange, a toxic defoliant US forces used during the Vietnam War.

The photos, which were taken by Vietnamese photographer Doan Duc Minh, attracted a great number of local viewers, particularly students.

The exhibition is organised by Sam Moehrke, an 18-year-old student at Charter School in Providence, Rhode Island, following his tour to Vietnam in late February.

Sam told that the organisation of a photo exhibition in the US would help relieve pains and losses that Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange had been suffering.

All money raised from the sale of the photo book “The Pains and the Smiles” would be used to help the victims, Sam said, adding that he expected to hold similar photo exhibitions at his school or in other cities such as San Francisco, California and Albany.

Speaking at the exhibition, Merle Ratner, Co-ordinator of the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign (VAORRC), called upon American people to help Vietnamese AO/dioxin victims.

US forces sprayed several toxic defoliants, mostly Agent Orange, in southern Vietnam during the war to deprive the Vietnamese liberation forces of forest cover and to destroy food crops.

The defoliants contained dioxin, an extremely stable carcinogen and toxic environmental pollutant.