Eddie Adams: Vietnam Photo exhibit encourages veterans interaction

Some of the most powerful images to come from the Vietnam War will be on view in Dublin for a four-month run.

The work of Pulitzer-prize winning photographer Eddie Adams will be exhibited at the Dublin Arts Council, 7125 Riverside Drive, through Sept. 11.

Eddie Adams: Vietnam will run in conjunction with the 50th Vietnam War Commemoration and is expected to be the biggest exhibition yet for the Dublin Arts Council.

It will include Adams' 1969 Pulitzer prize-winning photo of Nguyen Ngoc Loan, then national police chief of South Vietnam firing a bullet at the head of a Vietcong prisoner on a Saigon Street.

"I think it will be a really powerful exhibition and one of the most-attended the way things are going right now," said David Guion, the Arts Council's executive director.

Veterans have been involved with the exhibition, helping to come up with ways to make it interactive.

"We really wanted to have rich interaction with the work," Guion said.

"It's one thing to view a photograph and another thing to respond in some personal way."

Veterans involved with the program got a sneak peak and it dredged up many memories.

"Some of them were able to see the photos out of the crates that have arrived," Guion said.

"I think it's going to be an amazing exhibition.

"They were moved by the pieces they saw. It brought back a lot of memories.

"They talked about what they saw in the photos and it brought up a lot of stories," Guion said.

Veterans and visitors to the exhibition will have a chance to expound upon the photos in a video feedback booth being designed by Dublin museum exhibit builder Roto.

"In terms of interaction, people can view the photographs and talk about the experience," Guion said, adding veterans are welcome to tell stories of their experiences in the Vietnam War.

With permission, the DAC will air the stories at the exhibition and online.

People can also travel back to the era of the Vietnam War while viewing Adam's photos with an audio component.

"People can listen to the music of the years of the Vietnam War while they're touring," Guion said.

"It adds another dimension to the exhibition so you can see and listen at the same time to the music of the era."

Another way for people to work through emotions from the exhibition is a letter writing station.

People can pen a letter to a soldier to be sent or just write down what they feel, said Janet Cooper, the Arts Council's marketing and public relations manager.

"There are all kinds of ways to give feedback or acknowledge someone in the military," Guion said.

Adams died in 2004.

The exhibition will be on view until Sept. 11 and workshops based on Tim O'Brien's book The Things They Carried are slated for August and September to discuss the physical and emotional weight of war.

Some of the photos in the exhibition might be disturbing for some people, organizers said.

For more information, look online at dublinarts.org.