by aaron joel santos
Just a few quick Polaroids from a motorbike trip into the mountains of northern Vietnam near Pu Luong national park, a few hours southwest of Hanoi. A simple, soul-affirming kind of drive along small dirt roads and over rickety bridges and chaotic highways. It was a wonderful way to end over a month of assignments that took me across Japan, China, Hong Kong, and Vietnam. More to come once my film gets developed. So for now.
I’m heading off tomorrow for a two-week stint traveling up and down the length of Vietnam–from the Mekong Delta to the mountains of the far remote north–for a new travel/tourism client. I get back to the country nearly every month, but this project will be something different. Something I can really sink my teeth into. Dive in. Wander around both aimlessly and not. On planes, trains, and automobiles. I’ll try to post some photos from the road. So until then.
Just a few images from a recent fashion shoot featuring some beautiful, near-forgotten French sewing techniques still being kept alive in a small town in northern Vietnam. The pieces are faint and brief and feel like they could be carried away by a strong breeze, which is as proper an homage to the craft as I can imagine.
I don’t spend much time in Hanoi anymore, but it still feels like home whenever I’m back. Or as much like home as a place that is 100% definitely not your home can feel. But I guess Hanoi feels like home in that way that home always feels familiar, coming back to it. Something maybe kind of wells up inside of you. Looming communist structures start to feel almost intimate. Street scenes become familiar tableaus. The sounds of morning exercises and blaring loudspeakers are no longer jarring. So it’s always nice to be back, as I was a few weeks back for an assignment with The New York Times, on the then-upcoming 12th Communist Party Congress. Here are some images from the story as well as a few outtakes that didn’t make it to the final piece.
The World Photo Organisation along with PhotoShelter interviewed me about my photography. It just went live and you can see it here: Faded Memories. Mostly about my past work, the idea of truth in photography, and what it’s like to work with some of my favorite clients.
from swerve of shore 