{"id":8152,"date":"2019-02-14T04:20:49","date_gmt":"2019-02-13T21:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/matca.vn\/?p=8152"},"modified":"2020-03-23T17:51:23","modified_gmt":"2020-03-23T10:51:23","slug":"voi-phuong-ngo-nhiep-anh-nhu-mot-loi-vao-lich-su","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matca.vn\/en\/voi-phuong-ngo-nhiep-anh-nhu-mot-loi-vao-lich-su\/","title":{"rendered":"On Photography As An Entry Point Into History"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\">[vc_row content_placement=&#8221;middle&#8221;][vc_column offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-2 vc_col-md-2 vc_hidden-xs&#8221;][vc_column_text][\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-8 vc_col-md-8 vc_col-xs-12&#8243;][vc_column_text]<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a Vietnamese-Australian, artist Phuong Ngo is perpetually concerned with the question of where he is from. His visual artworks utilize photography as a research method to inquire into his cultural identity formation in connection with broader history. Here, Phuong Ngo spoke to Matca about the potential of photography beyond the printed surface, how vernacular photographs provide an alternative perspective of war and conflict, and the complexity of being an Australian born Vietnamese. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-2 vc_col-md-2 vc_hidden-xs&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_width=&#8221;stretch_row_content_no_spaces&#8221; gap=&#8221;20&#8243; content_placement=&#8221;middle&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1529647532707{padding-top: 40px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;}&#8221;][vc_column][vc_single_image image=&#8221;8158&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; add_caption=&#8221;yes&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row content_placement=&#8221;middle&#8221;][vc_column offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-2 vc_col-md-2 vc_hidden-xs&#8221;][vc_column_text][\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-8 vc_col-md-8 vc_col-xs-12&#8243;][vc_column_text]<b>How does photography fit into your practice of visual arts?<\/b><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My practice is not a conventional photographic one, and I align closely with conceptually driven art. Having said that, I can say that the foundation of my practice is lens focused. I\u2019m interested in my heritage and my family history, but in the wider history of the Vietnamese diaspora and Vietnamese history itself, and this goes through the history of colonialism, war, conflict and imperialism as well. So my practice actually sits around the potential of photography, what it can tell us with the help of hindsight, history and time, and what research it can lead to. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>How did this interest in photography come about in your career? <\/b><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Being the child of refugees, art wasn\u2019t exactly a space in which you could explore while under your parents\u2019 roof. I began with a degree in Asian Studies, then I started doing a research degree in Politics and it wasn\u2019t quite going the way I wanted it to. It was during that period that I started revisiting ideas around art and what art could be, and that led me to leave my studies and enroll in art school.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My interest in photography was pretty hazard. I needed to apply for art school but I hadn\u2019t done anything artistic in a good seven years, so I decided to pick up a camera and have a play with it. I started looking at the history of my family, and the closest one to me was the Vietnamese refugee narrative. The Vietnam War became very prominent in my research because it was the flashpoint in trying to understand why I exist the way that I do. When it came to image making the photographic medium just happened to be the most prolific, so this became the medium which I focus on. <\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-2 vc_col-md-2 vc_hidden-xs&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_width=&#8221;stretch_row_content_no_spaces&#8221; gap=&#8221;20&#8243; content_placement=&#8221;middle&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1529648274916{padding-top: 40px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;}&#8221;][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;8138&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; add_caption=&#8221;yes&#8221;][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;8139&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; add_caption=&#8221;yes&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row content_placement=&#8221;middle&#8221;][vc_column offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-2 vc_col-md-2 vc_hidden-xs&#8221;][vc_column_text][\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-8 vc_col-md-8 vc_col-xs-12&#8243;][vc_column_text]<b>This investigation into your personal history and that of the Vietnamese diaspora is reflected in <\/b><b><i>The Vietnam Archive Project<\/i><\/b><b>. How has the archive shaped and informed your practice?<\/b><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The archive was quite a fortuitous project in how it began. At that point I almost stopped thinking about making photos in the traditional sense and started to play with different ways in which photos can be extended. I was doing research online and came across a group of slides for sales on eBay from an American soldier whose wife was selling off after he passed away. It was kind of odd that I could buy them, like they were commodified, and there was no real preciousness to the objects. Most of my materials come from the United States and France, it\u2019s a lot harder to get Australian materials. Right now the archive consists of about 20,000 items, predominantly photos and slides but other objects, books and family photos as well. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I have certain boundaries with which I collected. They have to be almost complete sets, full photo album or full set of slides, because I\u2019m collecting the whole narrative, the entire experience of the war. Another thing is that my practice is heavily entrenched in research, and I almost view research as an actual art in itself. The archive is a massive repository of research for me. It\u2019s also an artwork, a reflection of how I think, how I curate and how I collect. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>What are some patterns that come out of the photos in the archive, considering the fact that they were mostly taken by American soldiers?<\/b><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What I learned from these sets is that these are very young men \u2013 the framing of the lens and the subject matter are really indicative of young, curious people who don\u2019t know what exactly they are doing. A lot of them are just mucking around, meeting local girls, going to local countries that are close by. I do have one grouping from a higher official which is largely around holidays, many shots from airplanes, nothing in the field or on the frontline. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another pattern is that Park Lane is a cigarette brand that was sold in South East Asia during the war. We\u2019re talking about the 1970\u2019s and 60\u2019s \u2013 it was the time of free love and the hippie movement in America and in Australia, and the drug of choice was marijuana. And Park Lane cigarette was how marijuana was sold in Saigon. Then when you go back and look at these photos, you realize that these guys are actually really high. It\u2019s quite an odd thing to think that these men are fighting in a war but at the same time they belonged to this kind of radical subculture, and back home in America people were very much anti what they were doing. <\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-2 vc_col-md-2 vc_hidden-xs&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;40px&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row gap=&#8221;20&#8243;][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;8143&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; add_caption=&#8221;yes&#8221; alignment=&#8221;center&#8221;][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;8142&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; add_caption=&#8221;yes&#8221; alignment=&#8221;center&#8221;][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;8144&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; add_caption=&#8221;yes&#8221; alignment=&#8221;center&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;20px&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row content_placement=&#8221;middle&#8221;][vc_column offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-2 vc_col-md-2 vc_hidden-xs&#8221;][vc_column_text][\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-8 vc_col-md-8 vc_col-xs-12&#8243;][vc_column_text]<b>These are aspects which are almost completely absent from the popular imagery of the Vietnam War. If you contrast these vernacular photographs to the iconic press photos, how would you say they are different?<\/b><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s almost the complete antithesis of what the press photos are. They are not looking for the drama, they are showing a much more complete picture of what happened during the war from a particular perspective. Even though it\u2019s only on one side, it\u2019s a much more holistic and personal illustration one. Press photos don\u2019t necessarily have names and things attached on them, but with some of these you see their name on their lapel or on their shoulder, and you can actually find out who they were. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Tell us about your\u00a0<\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/documentor.com.au\/portfolio\/phuong-ngo-vietnam-archive-project\/\"><b><u>recent exhibition<\/u><\/b><\/a><b>\u00a0of the archive \u2013 how did you present the photos combining different materials?\u00a0<\/b><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first work in that exhibition, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Colony<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, uses these found photos that I found in a market place in Saigon. In each one of these portraits, the face of Alexandre de Rhodes is pasted over Vietnamese people\u2019s face. The work is looking at the way in which identity is formed by colonial history, how the French has influenced Vietnamese identity but there is also the thousand years of Chinese colonialism. That\u2019s why the whole structure that hangs these photos is a very Chinese one \u2013 the red color, the hanging, the knots are all Chinese symbolic objects. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another work is called <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Hunt<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It\u2019s an installation that consists of one light box showing a photograph of a tiger skin and a series of digitally woven blankets featuring dead bodies of South Vietnamese soldiers. It looks at the commodification of soldiers into tools of war, the mechanization of that and the mechanization process of creating these blankets, and subsequently, what is war but the economics of death. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The final work that I\u2019ll be talking about is probably the first work that I made out of the archive, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Apocalypse Now and Then<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It takes a series of still shots of a chopper going back and forward in this really bad loop based on images in the archive. It\u2019s soundtracked with Wagner\u2019s Ride of Valkyries and this famous quote of &#8220;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ALi78xSaP0Y\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><u>I love the smell of napalm in the morning&#8221;<\/u><\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0from <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Apocalypse now<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The work explores the space between fictionalized history and history itself, and how over time one might replace the other. It\u2019s primarily questioning the cinematic universe, the complexity that sits around how we get information, what component of history is being presented and what gaps is being left or fleshed out. <\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-2 vc_col-md-2 vc_hidden-xs&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_width=&#8221;stretch_row_content_no_spaces&#8221; gap=&#8221;20&#8243; content_placement=&#8221;middle&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1529648390927{padding-top: 40px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;}&#8221;][vc_column offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-1 vc_hidden-md vc_hidden-sm vc_hidden-xs&#8221;][\/vc_column][vc_column offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-10 vc_col-md-12 vc_col-xs-12&#8243;][vc_video link=&#8221;https:\/\/vimeo.com\/132313778&#8243; align=&#8221;center&#8221;][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/12&#8243; offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-1 vc_hidden-md vc_hidden-sm vc_hidden-xs&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_width=&#8221;stretch_row_content_no_spaces&#8221; gap=&#8221;20&#8243; content_placement=&#8221;middle&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1529648274916{padding-top: 40px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;}&#8221;][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;8160&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; add_caption=&#8221;yes&#8221;][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;8146&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; add_caption=&#8221;yes&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row content_placement=&#8221;middle&#8221;][vc_column offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-2 vc_col-md-2 vc_hidden-xs&#8221;][vc_column_text][\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-8 vc_col-md-8 vc_col-xs-12&#8243;][vc_column_text]<b>You openly talk about failures \u2013 in getting back to the refugee camp and reenacting your parents\u2019 traumatic boat journey to Australia. Why do you think they are failures? What\u2019s the merit in doing something that cannot work?<\/b><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I had very romantic notions about gaining insight into my parents\u2019 experiences by physically retracing and filming key places of their displacement. The first work that I made out of the family history is <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pthngo.com\/my-dad-the-people-smuggler\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><u>My Dad the People Smuggler<\/u><\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which is the footage that I shot retracing their journey from Vietnam to the Bidong Island. I visited the refugee camp, got on a boat, then went back to this private beach resort, looking out from it and seeing the refugee camp on the coastline. And in realizing that my experience of the place was totally nothing like my parents\u2019, I felt like I failed in my attempt. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There was a beauty in that failure because I tried to do something to honor my parents and to learn. This inherent failure will always happen regardless of what I do to engage with the narrative on more than an oral history perspective. In acknowledging that everything will be a beautiful failure, I decided to keep going.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>From my observation, overseas Vietnamese artists tend to make work revolving around the Vietnam\/American War and their conflicted identity. Why do you think such tendency exists? <\/b><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a person who is displaced, not by choice but by circumstances, \u2013 and I feel like this is probably the case for a lot of creative diasporic artists in Australia and in Western countries, you exist in a space where you\u2019re reminded constantly that you don\u2019t belong. From a historic standpoint, it\u2019s part of that inherited trauma that you have from being a child of boat people as well. I was born in Australia but I cannot go anywhere in this country without being asked where I\u2019m from. And when I go back to Vietnam, for some reason it\u2019s really obvious that I don\u2019t belong there either, so I keep getting asked where I come from there as well. All of my works are situated around the idea of unpacking that question, where you\u2019re from. In questioning that, you do get interested in broader history. <\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-2 vc_col-md-2 vc_hidden-xs&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_width=&#8221;stretch_row_content_no_spaces&#8221; gap=&#8221;20&#8243; content_placement=&#8221;middle&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1529648390927{padding-top: 40px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;}&#8221;][vc_column offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-1 vc_hidden-md vc_hidden-sm vc_hidden-xs&#8221;][\/vc_column][vc_column offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-10 vc_col-md-12 vc_col-xs-12&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;8147&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; add_caption=&#8221;yes&#8221;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;8149&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; add_caption=&#8221;yes&#8221;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;8150&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; add_caption=&#8221;yes&#8221;][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/12&#8243; offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-1 vc_hidden-md vc_hidden-sm vc_hidden-xs&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row content_placement=&#8221;middle&#8221;][vc_column offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-2 vc_col-md-2 vc_hidden-xs&#8221;][vc_column_text][\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-8 vc_col-md-8 vc_col-xs-12&#8243;][vc_column_text]<b>Could you give your definition of Vietnameseness?<\/b><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Speaking for my own Vietnameseness \u2013 and I cannot say this strong enough, I can\u2019t speak for anybody else\u2019s \u2013 is very much situated in this idea of what it means to exist as a Vietnamese person outside of Vietnam. It\u2019s one that\u2019s to find by key events in history that predate my existence and by trying to understand how these dominos have fallen to create who I am. I guess my Vietnameseness is built around questions, questions of who I am being what history has created me and how far back in history do I need to go to understand that. So I\u2019m answering your question with a lot of big questions but I feel that that\u2019s the right thing for me.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-2 vc_col-md-2 vc_hidden-xs&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row content_placement=&#8221;middle&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1529648444439{padding-top: 40px !important;}&#8221;][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/12&#8243; offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-2 vc_col-md-2 vc_hidden-xs&#8221;][vc_column_text][\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-8 vc_col-md-8 vc_col-xs-12&#8243;][vc_separator][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;20px&#8221;][vc_column_text]<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pthngo.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><u>Phuong Ngo<\/u><\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a contemporary visual artist based in Melbourne. He completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at RMIT University in 2012. His practice spans across multiple media such as photography, video, installation and<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sydneyfestival.org.au\/events\/article-141#info\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">performance<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. He is currently developing<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hyphenatedprojects.com\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><u>Hyphenated Projects<\/u><\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a platform for presenting Asian-Australian art in Victoria, and shares a collaborative practice with Hwafern Quach,<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.slippage.com.au\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><u>Slippage<\/u><\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/em><br \/>\n<em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Follow him on <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/pthngo\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><u>Instagram<\/u><\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nguy\u1ec5n Ph\u01b0\u01a1ng Th\u1ea3o received a master\u2019s degree in Communication studies with a focus on the visual culture from Universit\u00e9 de Toulouse Jean Jaur\u00e8s (France). Her writings have been published on<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.diggitmagazine.com\/authors\/ptnguyentilburguniversityedu\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><u>Diggit Magazine<\/u><\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/em><br \/>\n<em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Connect with her on <\/span><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/thotui.23\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em><u>Facebook<\/u>.<\/em> <\/span><\/a>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/12&#8243; offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-2 vc_col-md-2 vc_hidden-xs&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row content_placement=&#8221;middle&#8221;][vc_column offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-2 vc_col-md-2 vc_hidden-xs&#8221;][vc_column_text][\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-8 vc_col-md-8 vc_col-xs-12&#8243;][vc_column_text]As a Vietnamese-Australian, artist Phuong Ngo is perpetually concerned with the question of where he is from. His visual artworks utilize photography as a research method to inquire into his cultural identity formation in connection with broader history. Here, Phuong Ngo spoke to Matca about the potential of photography beyond the printed surface, how vernacular photographs provide an alternative perspective of war and conflict, and the complexity of being an Australian born Vietnamese. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":8165,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,108],"tags":[902,901,892,813,934,893],"class_list":["post-8152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-journal","tag-archive-en","tag-conceptual-en","tag-identity-en","tag-must-read-en","tag-vernacular-photography-en","tag-vietnam-en"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>On Photography As An Entry Point Into History - Matca<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/matca.vn\/en\/voi-phuong-ngo-nhiep-anh-nhu-mot-loi-vao-lich-su\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On Photography As An Entry Point Into History - Matca\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[vc_row content_placement=&#8221;middle&#8221;][vc_column offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-2 vc_col-md-2 vc_hidden-xs&#8221;][vc_column_text][\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column offset=&#8221;vc_col-lg-8 vc_col-md-8 vc_col-xs-12&#8243;][vc_column_text]As a Vietnamese-Australian, artist Phuong Ngo is perpetually concerned with the question of where he is from. His visual artworks utilize photography as a research method to inquire into his cultural identity formation in connection with broader history. Here, Phuong Ngo spoke to Matca about the potential of photography beyond the printed surface, how vernacular photographs provide an alternative perspective of war and conflict, and the complexity of being an Australian born Vietnamese. 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