Some of the notable difficulties are the organizing activities promoting art works and training a generation of young talents, said Vice chairman of Ho Chi Minh City Photographic Association (HOPA), Hoang Thach Van.
In HCMC, photography lovers can learn the kind of art in a few faculties in universities, such as the faculty of journalism or the faculty of Photography of Ho Chi Minh City College of Culture and Arts, but not go into depth, he added.
The HOPA hopes that the municipal authorities, including the Department of Culture and Sports, the Ho Chi Minh City Literature and Arts Association, high schools and secondary schools will be interested in promoting the city’s photography arts, consisting of expanding the faculty of Photography of Ho Chi Minh City College of Culture and Arts; building lesson plans that meet art standards and are approved by the Ministry of Education and Training; providing exhibition areas in the city’s center, such as Nguyen Hue walking street, book street.
In addition, the country still lacks of an organization to protect authors' published works and intellectual property. There are many copyright infringement cases, such as using Google Images to find photos without image copyrights, searching and sharing pictures from internet platforms of Facebook, using images for commercial purposes, such as advertising.
The association plans to release a photo book presenting beautiful images of HCMC and hopes to receive financial assistance for implementing the project, Mr. Van said.
The Ho Chi Minh City Photographic Association (HOPA) has now more than 450 members who won hundreds of awards at local and international photo contests, and granted the International Federation of Photographic Art (FIAP)’s titles.
