A photo exhibition is set to open at the Vietnam Art Gallery in celebration of the 20th anniversary of diplomatic relations between America and Vietnam, and the 40th anniversary of the end of the war.

The exhibition in Hanoi will feature the photographs of Catherine Karnow, whose works have appeared in National Geographic, National Geographic Traveler, Smithsonian and many other international publications.

It represents an accumulation of 25 years of Catherine Karnow’s travels in Vietnam.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, the daughter of an American journalist, San Francisco-based photographer Catherine Karnow is known for her vibrant, emotional, and sensitive style of photographing people.

She studied photography in high school and graduated from Brown University with honours in comparative literature and semiotics. After a brief stint as a filmmaker she turned her attention to photography full-time in 1986.

Karnow is best known for her work covering victims of Agent Orange in Vietnam.

In 1994, she was the only non-Vietnamese photojournalist to accompany General Giap on his historic first return to the forest encampment in the northern Vietnam highlands from which he plotted the battle of Dien Bien Phu.

The exhibition is sponsored by Suzanne Lecht, Art Director of Art Vietnam Gallery and resident of Hanoi for 21 years.

“The event pays tribute to all those people who have touched our lives and allowed Vietnam into their hearts,” Lecht said.

It will run April 10 to May 8 at the Art Vietnam Gallery in Hanoi.