Saigon

All of the photos I share with you in this section, were all taken in Đà Lạt and Sài Gòn where I’m originally from. They also belong to my sister’s work! You can call her Chi. She works as a professional wedding planner who has a special interest in film photography. She’s been learning and practicing the art of photography in the last couple of years with hundreds of trials and errors. Her passion for learning is always a huge inspiration to me.

Growing up without an older sister, Chi becomes a part of my family. We haven’t seen each other for almost four years now. And I miss her every day, but looking at her work is one of the only times when I could feel a closer connection to her and it also reminds me so much of all of the beautiful memories that we had before.

When I left Vietnam, those were the last memories of a city where I was born and grew up. Many things have changed over the last few years when I was no longer there. Sometimes I wonder if I would like to visit all the places that used to be an important part of my childhood. And sometimes I wonder if I’m brave enough to go back and see how much I’ve changed. People say that it’s not an easy experience to travel to a new country, immerse yourself into a different culture and get your worldviews challenged. But wouldn’t it be even harder to go back “home”, speak your home language and try to bring back the old days?

“Cảm xúc dễ chịu giúp người ta biết mình đang đi đúng hướng. Còn cảm xúc khó chịu đến là lúc mình nhận ra phải hành động khác đi để thay đổi. Không có cảm xúc nào là vô dụng và thừa thải. Cảm xúc như cái la bàn định hướng. Dùng nó hay dục nó vào kho là quyết định của mình.

Chụp ảnh cũng như mọi môn art khác trên đời là cái kính lúp để ta soi mình kỹ hơn, hiểu mình đang muốn và cần điều gì hơn. Cơ mà dừng chân đứng lại, tự hỏi bản thân đang cảm thấy gì trước khi bấm máy lúc nào cũng khó, khi nào cũng hay quên” – from Chi