As a Vietnamese author, I dream to launch at international level the pioneering publishing concept of the Zixbook™ I patented in 2001. It is founded on the "sensory image", a blend of text, picture and sound. It will be presented soon on website www.zixbook.com under construction. It aims to promote education by encouraging a new way of reading through combined paper and digital media, as well as cultural and artistic exchanges across the world. I then set myself the challenge that consists in:

- honestly promoting worldwide the image of Vietnam and in particular its people, through art and culture with the Zixbook concept; and

- dealing with the complex photographic topic of national people for introducing both the Vietnamese and their diasporas;

Synopsis of Zixbook project entitled "VIETNAMESE WE - Beyond Divides":

There are many art photography works that focus on a single country, but very few dealing specifically with its people. Two legendary books exist though, published more than half a century ago: Robert Frank’s "The Americans" (1959) and René Burri’s "Die Deutschen" (The Germans) (1962). Then there were Donald McCullin & Jonathan Dimbleby’s "The Palestinians" (1979), Eugene Richards’ "Americans We" (1994), Gianni Berengo Gardin’s "Italiani" (Italians) (1999), Robert van der Hilst & Zoé Valdés’ "Les Cubains" (The Cubans) (2001), Bruno Barbey’s "The Italians" (2002), Liu Zheng's "The Chinese" (2004), Marc Riboud’s "Les Tibétains" (The Tibetans) (2009), Raghu Rai’s "The Indians : Portraits from my Album" (2010), Leonard Freed’s "The Italians" (2011), Christopher Morris' "Americans" (2012) and Olivier Beytout & Leonardo Padura/Una Liutkus’ "Les Cubains" (The Cubans) (2012). In spite of the wealth of books available worldwide about Vietnam, there would be still not one art photography book that introduces the Vietnamese. This project humbly endeavors to fill that gap.

What could be more challenging than portraying without forgetting its 5 million diaspora, the 96 million inhabitants of a fascinating country characterized by a cultural diversity of 55 different ethnic groups and a past that stretches back 4,000 years? How could we grasp the spirit of a nation without becoming trapped in the clichés of its multifaceted cultural footprint? Bùi Huy Trang presents a humanist and subjective vision of the Vietnamese people. His sensitive and empathic eye leads us through 50 black & white and 50 color photographs. All these pictures were shot with Leica cameras and lenses during several reportage trips across and outside Vietnam over two decades (1997-2017), the result of chance meetings, as amazing as they were enriching, with men and women from all walks of life. The author has selected and ordered them with the greatest care and the deepest respect for his compatriots to reveal the complexity of their soul, character and personality, while, underlying all this, questioning the nature of time, existence and death. In them he finds a fleeting reality that shakes him to the core and which he has consistently avoided shrouding in an aesthetic discourse that is not his own. Whether real, virtual or mental, the images fuse later with the spiritual music of two Buddhist singing bowls. The author also offers two prose poems that he wrote in accompaniment to a meditation music and the photographs, which are deceptively simple, yet remarkably full of life and truth. He finally wanted to pay tribute to Chữ Nôm, the former Vietnamese script, in this multimedia book known as "zixbook" which connects picture, text and sound for creating the "sensory image".

Enhanced ebook with video available for download at www.zixbook.com/shop/category/8-ebook

SPONSORS WELCOME for promoting together the Zixbook worldwide through photo exhibitions and the future photo artbook "VIETNAMESE WE - Beyond Divides".

Please contact me at zixbook (at) gmail (dot) com for any query or for ordering licences or art prints on Japanese washi papers. Many thanks for visiting.

www.flickr.com/photos/zixbook/45875776851/in/dateposted/