Just a thousand words - taking pictures in Vietnam

I read an article in the most recent Non Sông issue as my wife was preparing lessons for her summer tutoring program. It was the first time Non Sông editors have published a feature on a few of the young Vietnamese American photographers in socal, and each picture seemed to speak to me. I'm kicking myself for not bringing the article home, or finding that issue on my bookshelf because I know I took one at Hội Tết last February, but I do remember one photographer and his websites so I'll post him here and do the rest later. If I get around to it, that is.

Loc Nguyen is the only photographer I know personally, we both went to UCI and worked with VietACT when it was just taking off. I love his nature shots. I see him as a down-to-earth person, never talking too much but packing meaning into his words, just like his pictures. He can be found at http://locnguyen.smugmug.com/

A feeling I've been tossing around resurfaced while looking at those pictures last night. My last trip to Vietnam was strictly for leisure, đi chơi according to my Viet friends. This time around, we'll be visiting relatives and stuff like that, but I feel like I need a purpose to be there. Vietnam is a world too full of meaning for me to just take another "fun trip." Part of me wants to sit on the street corner every morning and just take pictures of people walking by, but I'm not at a zoo. Last time, a minority woman took advantage of my desire to candidly capture her daughter's face(this link will take you to my photo album) by charging me a dollar after the shutter clicked. Who said Vietnam isn't capitalist! Anyway, I do think focusing my lens on the more mundane side of Vietnam, the stuff that walks or rides or crawls by me everyday, may appease this underlying urge to "capture Vietnam." If that's even possible.

UPDATE - 06/16/07

Ok, I've got the issue here so I'm going to write up about a few more of these people:

Phi Dong has a very cool website (it's called "phidong.com" if that's any indication) with a blog and everything. Lots of photos of cars, but I like nature better so I'm posting this one. Take a look here: http://www.phidong.com/gallery/

Denny Le has a knack for catching the beauty in architectural forms as well as nature. Although his site doesn't have a huge number of images, the ones there are worth a look (the one to the right is actually a picture of Cat Ba Island in Northern Vietnam): http://www.dennyphotography.com/Portfolio