Documentary PhotographyPERFECT LIGHTCompelling Authentic Timeless

Vietnam Walkabout

This is a followup to my previous Vietnam: iPhoneography post.

I normally like taking photos of people when I travel but during this particular trip to Vietnam, somehow I did not feel like doing people photography. The feeling came about because of the huge number of tourists I came across that acted extremely insensitive to the people they were taking photos of. In many areas where there were explicit signs which stated that no photography was allowed or taking photos of people from minority tribes should be done with their consent, many tourists blatantly disregarded the signs and guidelines. It was just sad to see their conduct. I remember a whole group of American tourists snapping away in an area that had no photography signs (in English) all over the place. When it was time for them to leave, they got onto their tour bus and every single one of them started reviewing the photos they had just taken. The image of the bus with every passenger seated and looking down at their camera’s LCD screen seems quite firmly ingrained into my mind.

During this trip, I ended up intentionally trying to take photos which somehow excluded people’s faces (whenever there were people present in my camera’s viewfinder) or switch my focus to animals which I enjoy taking photos of anyway. I hope you enjoy the following selection of photos.

The photos were taken using Ricoh GR1v and Contax T film cameras and expired TriX black and white film.