Thanks for this link! That 2016 comment appears to say he was known alternatively as Lỗ Mạnh Hùng or Lỗ m Cường. "Cường and I worked in a photo developing lab in San Francisco (image processing lab) … Cuong still works there". I'm not sure how many photo labs were still operating in the city in 2016 but Google Maps is listing only 20 there now. If he was 12 in 1968 he would be around 68 today.
"Hung eventually left Vietnam and ran his own photo shop in San Francisco, where he met former AP photographer Horst Faas in 1998, according to the San Francisco Examiner. 'They paid me $10 a picture,' Hung told Faas. 'It could support my whole family for one month.' A selection of Hung’s photos follows."
Amazing find. That mention of the Examiner led to the June 22, 1998 edition, front page of the Style section by Vietnam veteran Edvins Beitiks ("Ed"), "'Requiem' for A War, An Era":
"And at each exhibit, Faas has been approached by people with their own memories, people wanting to talk. In San Francisco, he was surprised by Jimmy Lo Hung, who took pictures for AP as a 12-year-old during the Tet offensive and now runs his own photo shop on Ninth Street.
Hung had brought a picture of himself in a helmet with PRESS across the front, and a laminated story headlined 'Boy, 12, in Dangerous Jobs'. 'They paid me $10 a picture,' he said, 'and that was big money in Vietnam. It could support my whole family for one month.'
Hung lost all his pictures and negatives when the North Vietnamese invaded the South. 'I only had a few minutes to escape,' he said, remembering that 'I was pulled aboard a helicopter filled with soldiers. They held my leg while it took off. So many soldiers trying to get on… some didn't, some dropped down.'
Faas, sitting beside Hung, said 'This kid, I didn't even know he was alive. I'm happy, really happy, to see him.'"
I wonder if the lab might have been Newtec Color Lab Inc at 122 9th St which appears to have been run by a Jimmy H Lo (Jun 1956–Jan 2018). There's also a tribute to Horst Faas at the Vietnam Reporting Project here: https://vietnamreportingproject.org/2012/05/remembering-hoor...
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Thanks for this link! That 2016 comment appears to say he was known alternatively as Lỗ Mạnh Hùng or Lỗ m Cường. "Cường and I worked in a photo developing lab in San Francisco (image processing lab) … Cuong still works there". I'm not sure how many photo labs were still operating in the city in 2016 but Google Maps is listing only 20 there now. If he was 12 in 1968 he would be around 68 today.
We also know his father was AP photojournalist Lỗ Vinh so possibly the Associated Press or NPPA might have a lead. 13 results here from his father: https://newsroom.ap.org/editorial-photos-videos/search?query...
Scribd has a PDF of "Vietnam Magazine" from February 2016 (https://www.scribd.com/document/325931427/Vietnam-February-2...). Page 40 of this PDF has the following quote that supports the San Francisco shop story:
"Hung eventually left Vietnam and ran his own photo shop in San Francisco, where he met former AP photographer Horst Faas in 1998, according to the San Francisco Examiner. 'They paid me $10 a picture,' Hung told Faas. 'It could support my whole family for one month.' A selection of Hung’s photos follows."
Amazing find. That mention of the Examiner led to the June 22, 1998 edition, front page of the Style section by Vietnam veteran Edvins Beitiks ("Ed"), "'Requiem' for A War, An Era":
"And at each exhibit, Faas has been approached by people with their own memories, people wanting to talk. In San Francisco, he was surprised by Jimmy Lo Hung, who took pictures for AP as a 12-year-old during the Tet offensive and now runs his own photo shop on Ninth Street.
Hung had brought a picture of himself in a helmet with PRESS across the front, and a laminated story headlined 'Boy, 12, in Dangerous Jobs'. 'They paid me $10 a picture,' he said, 'and that was big money in Vietnam. It could support my whole family for one month.'
Hung lost all his pictures and negatives when the North Vietnamese invaded the South. 'I only had a few minutes to escape,' he said, remembering that 'I was pulled aboard a helicopter filled with soldiers. They held my leg while it took off. So many soldiers trying to get on… some didn't, some dropped down.'
Faas, sitting beside Hung, said 'This kid, I didn't even know he was alive. I'm happy, really happy, to see him.'"
I wonder if the lab might have been Newtec Color Lab Inc at 122 9th St which appears to have been run by a Jimmy H Lo (Jun 1956–Jan 2018). There's also a tribute to Horst Faas at the Vietnam Reporting Project here: https://vietnamreportingproject.org/2012/05/remembering-hoor...