Last week I presented my favorite places for Street Photography while I was in Hanoi for a little more than two weeks. Now is the time where I want to pay tribute to the amazing Street Photographers that often go unnoticed.
When I think about it, it is kind of weird that we like looking at exotic pictures from all around the world. As a European Street Photographer myself, I mostly see pictures from European or American Street Photographers. They are more connected and therefore there is this circle of Street Photographers who share their images from all over the world.
Steve McCurry is famous for his pictures from India. But how many Indian Street Photographers do you know for example?
It is the same for Asia and Vietnam. Only a few are known internationally, which is not fair since their images are great.
Why should we put more trust in people traveling the country and showing their Street Photographs, instead of seeing the vision of a country first-hand by the local Street Photographers?
Meet The Street Photographers
I believe I got introduces to the work of Chu Việt Hà when I researched for pictures that I could include in my best-of from 2016. For that article, my goal was to go further and feature Street Photographers from all over the world, instead of focusing on the “old” world.
Chu Việt Hà’s work stood out and seeing how popular the list has gotten it was a good choice to pick his picture.
Street Photography is very brisk in Vietnam and especially in Hanoi, there is an active group that I had the chance to meet. Compared to Berlin the “Scene” in Hanoi seems a lot bigger and includes a lot of young & eager Street Photographers.
That shouldn’t be a surprise though, Hanoi is a great place for Street Photography and taught me a few lessons.
The Development
The Street Photography Community is very active and alive. During my stay in Hanoi, they had a portrait workshop in cooperation with Fuji X and also a release presentation for the newest Fuji X camera model.
So there are a lot more activities that I want to follow and see how the Street Community in Hanoi develops even further.
Inspiration
To categorize their style and sum it up would undermine that they are still individual Street Photographers with a unique approach to Street Photography. Nonetheless, I see a certain style in their pictures that is very rare in Europe.
The Street images that I see from Hanoi are often very vivid and full of life – as is the city. Furthermore, there is often a note of humor in the pictures. A grain of fun, that I often miss when I look at images of my hometown.
Street Photography is more and more treated like a serious business and somewhere we lost that note of fun.
It is cool to see that again in the pictures in Hanoi and when you see these Street Photographers interacting with the people on the street, you can see where this is coming from.
With the power of Social Media we can form a global Street Photography Community and these guys of Vietnam are definitely worth to look at.
Chu Việt Hà
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chuvietha
Flickr: http://flickr.com/chuvietha
Trần Vũ Trung
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/trungdel1808
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/trungdel/
Thái Sơn Tùng
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tung.t.son
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thaisontung/
Lê Đức Giảng
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elvill.haui
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elvill.haui/
Tran Que Thanh
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tran.q.thanh.1
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tqtsmall/
Ngô Phàm (Portrait)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ngotieupham
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ngotieupham%2F
Fujifilm X Group
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FujifilmXVietNam/
