German photographer Thomas Billhard and Vietnamese soldiers. Photo: NVCC/vietnamplus.vn

Born in 1937 in the city of Chemnitz (also known as Karl-Marx-Stadt during the German Democratic Republic), Billhard was one of the most famous photojournalists of the post-war period, who documented life under realist socialism and provided striking insights into everyday life in the GDR.

Billhardt first came to Vietnam in 1967 with a film crew from the German Democratic Republic, when Hanoi was suffering from American bombing raids against North Vietnam.

Billhardt was especially known for his photos taken in Vietnam. His four major photo books are “Pilots in Pyjamas” (1968), “Thirst for Peace: Vietnam” (1973), “Hanoi-The Days Before Peace” (1973) and “Faces of Vietnam” (1978).

In 2020, he published the photo book “Hanoi 1967-1975” and held an exhibition of the same name in Hanoi. His powerfully poignant photos of the war in Vietnam have been exhibited in Germany, Sweden and Russia, making Thomas Billhardt a famous photographer around the world.

After the war ended, Billhard returned to Vietnam many times, looking for the characters of his photos to see how they lived during the years of peace.

In 2020, after the exhibition "Hanoi 1967-1975" and the publication of this book of the same name, Thomas Billhardt was honored with the "Bui Xuan Phai - For the Love of Hanoi" award.