©Dek Unu Arts, 2020
Images: ©Barry Cheeseman
Eleven
This is Dek Unu Magazine. In Esperanto, dek unu means "eleven." Eleven Images from a single artist. Eleven artists in eleven solo issues each year.
Dek Unu publishes the work of a new photoartist in each issue. The artist's work and words are featured alone and in individual focus as the sole purpose for each issue of the magazine. Unlike other arts and letters magazines which might look for work from a variety of artists to support an editorial staff's theme, at Dek Unu, theme and imagery are always each artist's own.
Although the Vietnam-American conflict ended in 1975, and although there are now a couple of generations for whom the history has no special significance, reflections of the war and its impact on its participants continue to appear in politics, literature, and the fine arts. Like many others, Australian photo-artist Barry Cheeseman had no idea, as an infantryman in Vietnam in 1968, that he would return to the country many times to make art from his admiration of the country, the culture, and, especially, its common people. To those who remember only the American side of the conflict, as well as to those whose memory begins decades later, Cheeseman presents these unposed, black and white images of the people and daily life in today’s Vietnam, images in which it is very possible to see reflections of yesterday’s Vietnam as well.
