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With its colourful urban scenes, Vietnam sees a surge in amateur street photography
After her father presented her with a Canon camera a year ago, Nguyen Thu Linh, an 18-year-old student at National Economics University, began spending weekends in Hanoi’s Old Quarter. She knows her hometown well, but since she began taking pictures she’s grown to love it more and more.
“I love telling my friends the different daily stories of Hanoi, its streets and its people,” she says. “They’re surprised that Hanoi seems more beautiful and interesting than they’d thought. They see it every day, but they’re too rushed and don’t appreciate its beauty.”
Street photography is growing in popularity as a pastime in Vietnam. The recent exhibition “Like a Life” at an insurance firm’s office in Hanoi gave two of them a chance to show their work.
It featured 54 photos taken in cities and provinces across the country by Nguyen “LS Trung” Van Trung and Chu “Ha Viet” Viet Ha, both fans of the “decisive moments” concept espoused by the great French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, a master of candid snapshots.
Ha Viet and LS Trung share a passion for spotting interesting moments, observing life on the street and waiting for the opportunities.
“Besides my writing, I’ve found another way to memorise the colourful life around me on every single journey – with my camera,” says Trung, 36, a lawyer. “My photos help me express my emotions and to deliver a message.”
Through his street photography, Trung tells life stories with lots of humour, drawing on his own views and experiences. He likes getting as close as possible to his subjects to “touch their soul” and will patiently wait for special moments to present themselves.
He’s a regular among Facebook collectives such as the APF Magazine Street Photography Group, Street Photography in the World, Vietnam Street Photography, We Like Travel and Viet’s Landscape.
Ha appreciates the chances that street photography gives him to interact with people with whom he’d otherwise never meet. He collects special and strange stories of the street, interesting and sometimes-surreal scenes that most never notice.
“I come into contact with people from different positions and classes who I’ve never connected with before,” he says.
“I was given a DSLR camera a few years ago and learned how to shoot by myself. I just went along the street and shot street life. By accidental I met a group of older photographers and joined them to study the craft on weekend mornings. That group laid the foundation for my photography career.”
Ha says he prefers to get close to his subjects “because I want to become a factor in their life stories”.
“There are locations I can visit often, but I won’t shoot the first time. I try making friends and chatting with people there first. And then, when I’m more familiar with them, it’s easier to connect and capture their lives. On my photo walks I move slowly, pay attention and observe, holding the camera in my hand ready to shoot quickly.”
Ha often shoots around Hoan Kiem Lake and then walks to Dong Xuan Market. He loves the lake because of the lovely scenery, which brightens his mood. It’s a lively place with people doing their exercises each morning and evening.
Dong Xuan Market is a complete contrast, being crowded and busy with labourers. The lights and shadow under canvas awnings and the endlessly inspiring architecture are magnets for street photographers.
In fact urban streets across the country lure shutterbugs from around the world.
“Vietnam has it all,” says teenager Linh. “Repairmen of all sorts reworking something that in the West would be thrown away, people eating on small plastic stools, buying chicken’s feet or pig’s ears, etc – it all happens here!”
The very public nature of Vietnamese life means photographers have a lot more freedom than they would in the West, she adds. “You can see virtually every aspect of life on display by just walking around a place.”
Amateur photographers concur that the best locations are old neighbourhoods and street markets. And in pursuing their hobby, they make a lot of new friends among the people they’re photographing and learn about different lifestyles and jobs.
“Street life has never stopped surprising and impressing me,” says Linh. “I love it most because it brings people closer together.”
