Vietnamese portrait project
Chao ban
Thank you for taking the time to read about my portrait project. I’ve written down a few points to help me crystalize this idea into a working project, and to give you enough information decide whether to participate. I hope you do. This project will be evolving with time and your input.
A quick ‘about me’: I’m Hoang, 47, born just outside Hanoi and came to the UK via Hong Kong in 1979. Upon arrival, we were temporarily housed and processed in Staffordshire (video footage at https://www.macearchive.org/films/atv-today-18061979-vietnamese-boat-refugees-arrive) before eventually settling into the Lewisham area which is where my heart is, even though I’m now banished to the suburbs of Purley. I’m married with 3 kids and been a pro photographer for the last 10 years with emphasis on portraits, weddings, commercial.
So the project:
Due to some family circumstances, my Vietnamese comprehension is next to zero and my knowledge of my family history is as sketchy as a 2 year old’s drawing. The loss of my parents, the realisation that I’m getting older, and the inquisitiveness of my own children has given me a longing to connect and learn about not only about my own life, but about the collective experience of fellow uprooted Vietnamese. Who are you? How do you identify as Vietnamese / British Vietnamese? What rituals and traditions keep you rooted? I wish to do that through the process of conversation and medium of photography. Your past isn’t mine, but I’d like to think that parts of our history is a shared one.
Purpose of photography project:
1.To create portraits that subtly explores the meaning of home. Specifically, how you stay tethered to your Vietnameseness through small rituals, or symbols, or habits, or the food you eat / share. The portraits will be accompanied with a few words of text.
2. To connect with fellow Vietnamese and through conversation, to build a body of knowledge that will help fill in the gaps of my own lack of Vietnameseness.
3. I’m not looking for big stories. I’d rather the small, personal fragments of memory that keeps you rooted in your history as Vietnamese.
4. To create a body of portrait work that is aesthetically strong that we will both be proud of. I’ll achieve this using portable studio lighting and medium format film. These photos will be on social media and in time, may be submitted into publications such as the British Journal of Photography.
I’ve given the project an initial title of ‘Routed / Rooted’.
I’d love to have a more defined narrative, but at this stage my head is swimming with ideas and I tend to suffer from paralysis analysis, but to do that in such an early stage would be limit the direction of where it may go. I hope you have a say in where.
I’d love for you to be part of this photographic project, and if not, please pass this on to someone who you think may be interested. I can be reached at:
07480 254 230