PORTFOLIO Deconstructed | Hanoi Vietnam

I recently added a new portfolio piece on Hanoi, Vietnam to my main web site – www.thomaspickard.com [Go to Editorial II, then Hanoi | Vietnam].

I spent a number of days in Hanoi in mid-July of this year. Apart from the obvious history of Vietnam with the French and the Americans, I knew little about modern day Vietnam before I visited. Despite this, I was keen to capture a series of images that would represent Hanoi as I saw it. I also wanted a piece to update my main web site with and to push out to potential image buyers as part of my year long editorial marketing campaign.

The first thing I do when I arrive anywhere new, is try not to take any photographs for as long as possible. Instead, I try to be as open as possible to all the visual stimuli around me, which basically means I am trying to recognise what I think is unique about a place.

Having time not to shoot is often a luxury, but because this was a trip just for myself, it was a luxury I had. On the contrary, when on assignment I begin shooting from the moment I arrive on location.

When I begin photographing, I photograph anything that I think is visually appealing. At the same time, I have a basic formula that includes the place, the people and the details, which breaks down like this:

The place is about scene setters, which will often be used as opening photos in magazines.

The people is about portraits of people I either meet or approach on the street.

The details include a lot of things such as building facades, street food, cafe interiors or anything that tells its’ own story.

Through out the day I write down photos to capture if I see something or a place that is unique and the light isn’t the best. I also systematically explore new areas of a location each day, only returning to previously visited spots to capture the best light for a specific photo that I have in mind. Having a good map of the area is essential in my opinion and is one of the first things I purchase.

What this all translates to is a lot of walking and waiting and looking. I will often stand for 20-minutes or more on a street corner, just observing what is going on around me. Other times, I will walk around a corner, see something and take a photo straight away.

At the end of the four days I had taken just over a 1,000 frames. As I had done an edit each night in Hanoi, by the time I arrived back in Bangkok I only needed to do one more quick edit to come up with 100 selects from the trip.

Of the 100 selects, I know I need to get this down to no more than 20 portfolio photos.

To achieve this, I look for anything that gives me a reason to remove the image from the selection. I look for similar images, both in terms of content and composition and by comparing them side-by-side in Lightroom. This process tends to whittle the 100 down to around 30 or 40 selects, at which stage I begin pairing them up, thinking conceptually about which photos will work together.

I don’t always pair photos. Some times I do and other times I don’t. For Vietnam it just felt like a natural thing to do given what I had captured and the fact that my strongest images were verticals.

The easiest way to explain this process is to go through each final pairing and explain what I was thinking.

I was after a strong opener that combined elements of Communism with an important area of Hanoi.

Left: This photo combined all of these elements for me, from the workers hunched and tending the grass that no one can walk on, to Ho Chi Minh’s burial place. Each day thousands of people – including Vietnamese travellers – line up to gain a glimpse of the embalmed Ho Chi Minh in his open casket, inside the Mausoleum.

Right: I chose the photo on the right for two reasons. Firstly it shows the Mausoleum on the fan and secondly, it is incredibly hot in Hanoi in July and lots of people walk around with hand held fans, fanning themselves when ever they can.

You can’t read any of Vietnam’s history or visit any of the museums in Hanoi and not think a lot about the history of the country. While I knew I had to capture some photos of the war, I wasn’t clear on how I would capture some photos relating to the younger generation and their future.

Left: I photographed a number of younger kids on the street and they nearly all did the same thing – make a peace sign with their fingers. This was totally unprompted by me.

I chose this photo because it shows the younger generation and given all the years of war and conflict, I felt the peace sign was a real indicator of the type of future the younger generation wants to have. I’m sure some will say I am reading into this way too much – and I probably am – but this is the reason I chose this frame.

Right: Peace goes with war right? A photo pairing the two concepts was an obvious choice.

Portraits are important in any travel piece. I think as people we all connect at some level when looking at portraits of people.

Left: This man, who didn’t speak a word of English, approached me indicating he wanted a photo outside of the Ho Chi Minh Museum. Some times, just being present is enough for people to approach you.

Right: Every day I would go to this little local cafe just down the road from where I was staying and drink coffee and watch the world go by. Few foreigners seemed to frequent the cafe and the young guys that ran the place got to know me a little bit. On my second last visit, I asked – as best I could – if I could take some portraits. Two of the guys were accommodating in my request.

I specifically chose these two images because I wanted to highlight some of the differences between the types of people you meet in Hanoi.

Hanoi is a really hip place. A lot of people are dressed in trendy clothes, with cool coloured helmets on and snazzy little scooters that they use to zip around the streets. I couldn’t do a piece on Hanoi and not include this side of life.

Left: I chose this photo as it matched the whole cafe scene perfectly and these little coffee makers are something that are unique to Hanoi (and probably the rest of Vietnam).

Right: This photo really sums up the new Hanoi – people dressed in trendy clothes with their scooters, catching up outside a cafe.

I realised on my first night in Hanoi that I would have to include some photos of the place at night. It just comes alive with people and has a real hustle and bustle feel to it.

Left: Cyclo driver taking a nap late in the evening on a quiet back street so typical of Hanoi.

Right: Lady selling balloons on one of the busier intersections in Hanoi.

I really noticed the contrast between what people were wearing in Hanoi.

You would see ladies dressed so fashionably and then you would see some of the men almost dressed in army type fatigues with army style helmets on. The pairing of these photos represents this.

Left: Street food is a big part of Hanoi culture. Every day you come across people eating meals right there on the side walk. To me it was another insight into daily life that I had to include.

Right: Hanoi is a real mix of architecture. As I had already captured a photo of the older architecture in the area (next photo), I really wanted to include some of the more current day architecture.

For me, these photos are both great details photos – telling the reader something about the place.

Left: It was the middle of the day, it was hot and I was walking down a busy street. The light was terrible and there really wasn’t much happening. I stopped at an intersection, turned around and saw this classic old facade in the shade and knew instantly it would make a good photo. It made the cut due to the strong framing of the the building; the old building facade letters and language and the criss-crossing elements of the electrical wiring.

Right: This made the cut due to the design elements of the round pieces, the cloth board squares and the fact it provides another insight into daily life – two men playing a game on the floor of some building, some where in Haoni.

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I hope this article has helped highlight some of my thinking behind actually capturing imagery whilst in Hanoi and the final image selection process back in Bangkok. Don’t forget, I am talking from the perspective of an image provider. Though my market is image buyers, I can’t provide an insight into what an image buyer may or may not be thinking.

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Do you have an opinion on this article and the reasons behind the photos I chose?

If so, please feel free to leave your input in the comments section.

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