The Indochina Media Memorial Foundation (IMMF) was founded in London in 1991 in memory of journalists who died covering all sides of the Indochina conflicts from 1945 to 1975. Between the height of the French Indochina War in the fifties and the fall of Phnom Penh and Saigon in 1975, one hundred and thirty five (135) photographers and correspondents from all sides of the conflict were killed.
The IMMF's first chairman was John Sheppard, who died in 2009. The IMMF works to develop the skills of journalists in Indochina. The Trustees aim to achieve this through developing education and training courses run through agencies and educational institutions in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, including the Vietnam News Agency in Hanoi. The first IMMF workshop was held in Saigon in 2002, with more than forty trainee Vietnamese journalist/photographers attending for the three-day course. A second workshop in Vietnam, managed by Sheila Brown, was held in Hanoi in 2006 with more than fifty Vietnamese journalists and photographers attending over the three day course with instructional sessions conducted by Tim Page (United Kingdom), James Caccavo (USA), Frank Palmos (Australia), Pham Thanh Hung (Canon, Singapore) and other visiting specialists.
The IMMF believes the memory of the dead journalists is best served by encouraging a new generation who will chart the development of the region in years to come. The lasting legacy is in the form of a 336-A3 size color plated publication entitled 'Requiem' (Random House, New York, 1997), with the front cover photo by Larry Burrows at Khe Sanh (1966) and a back cover image of the bullet-pierced camera used in Vietnam by Japanese photographer Taizo Ichinosi. 'Requiem' was edited by Horst Haas and Tim Page, with contributions from Peter Arnett, Tad Bartimus, John Laurence, Richard Pyle, Pierre Schoendoerffer, Neil Sheehan, John Swain, William Toohey and a special contribution from noted North Vietnamese war correspondent Nguyen Khuyen, in collusion with Frank Palmos, written from the Vietnam News desk in Hanoi in 1995, who wrote on page 111: "If we look with great attention at the photographs, we ourselves can get the eerie sensation of becoming the photographer. We sense his fears- but we know more: We know that death will follow soon."
The Lord Puttnam of Queensgate (CBE) is the Patron of the IMFF. Working in post-war Vietnam, Indo-China war Tim Page and Horst Faas (photographers) were the driving force behind the original foundation, and with correspondent Frank Palmos researching in Hanoi (1988-93), were foundation trustees. Other noted correspondents Jon Swain, James Nachtwey, Sandy Gall (CBE), Joseph Galloway, George Esper are other famous photographers and correspondents of the still incomplete list of professionals who joined as trustees and supporters of the Foundation.
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“Remember that whatever knowledge you do not solidly lay the foundation of before you are eighteen, you will never be master of while you breathe.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)