12 eyes are better than two
The other night I met up with photographers Justin Mott, Niek Milder, Trong Tung Nguyen, Aaron Joel Santos and Jeff Holt for what’s starting to become a semi-regular, bi-monthly gathering to discuss our work. And drink whiskey. My, the two just go hand-in-hand so well…. Anyway, like a lot of photojournalists, I spend a lot [...]
Asian Indoor Games, or “Possibly the world’s most obscure multinational sporting event”
Vietnam is hosting the Asian Indoor Games this week. After covering a few days of indoor track and field, it quickly became apparent that very few people around the globe were taking any notice (ie: I was filing pictures into thin air). Fair enough. It just doesn’t have the flavor of, say, the Asian Beach [...]
Happy accidents of the royal kind
The last few days I’ve been covering the visit of the Danish Royal family to Hanoi. I have to say, they are all a very well-groomed and good-looking crew – great teeth and hair everywhere. Queen Margrethe, Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Prince Mary (she’s Tasmanian, you know!) attended an outdoor street festival this afternoon, [...]
Return of the military honor guard
Anyone who shoots for a wire agency in a capital city knows the Groundhog Day routine that happens when a visiting dignitary (PM, Prez, King or Queen) drops in for a cup of tea on their watch. It means an official state reception and rolling out the red carpet with a military honor guard. It’s [...]
No room, no time… no problem.
Yesterday Vinacapital held their annual investor’s conference at the Sofitel Metropole in Hanoi. I’ve worked on several assignments with them in the past, and am always happy to get a phone call from them. My assignment this time was to setup a studio on-location and make portraits of the staff and investors during their coffee [...]
The Prime Minister and the General
This morning the 6th session of the National Assembly XII opened at the Ministry of Defence in Hanoi. Nothing particular titillating to photograph, mostly just a few hundred delegates sitting down listening to a few opening remarks by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. However, before the start of the session, I caught up with the [...]
Lens Blog Pictures of the Day
An image of mine popped up last week on the extremely tasty NYTimes LENS Blog. The New York Philharmonic was in Hanoi for a pair of shows at the historic opera house (whose doors first opened in French colonial Indochina in 1911), but instead of focusing on the performance, I concentrated on the reactions of [...]
Xxxxxxx Magazine defaults on payment (but then Facebook comes to the rescue)
UPDATE: After posting this blog, and a similar post on Facebook, I got a phone call from the magazine in about 5 minutes, agreeing to pay, in exchange for taking down the Facebook post. Wow, that was the quickest turnaround I’ve ever encountered. “The power of Facebook to speed up late payments” deserves its own [...]
Reflections of a new father visiting an Agent Orange orphanage
Yesterday I went to an orphanage outside Hanoi, to work on a story about Agent Orange. There’s a new report out from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, saying the chemical defoliant could be causing heart disease and Parkinson’s in US Vietnam veterans. Of course this means it would be having the same effect on [...]
Robert McNamara, US Secretary of Defense during Vietnam War, dies aged 93
McNamara was famously remourseful about his role in the Vietnam War in his later years, as recorded by Errol Morris in “The Fog of War“. His critics said that was much too little, too late. Though unlike Donald Rumsfeld, he did seem to genuinely carry the burden of his role in the deaths of thousands [...]
The lawyers and the law
Last week, Hanoi lawyer Cu Huy Ha Vu launched a lawsuit against the Prime Minister of Vietnam, Nguyen Tan Dung. It’s not every day a citizen sues the leader of his country. In fact, according to Vu, it’s never been done before in Vietnam. Go figure. The lawsuit is over controversial bauxite mining projects in [...]
Fotorim magazine interview, HIV/AIDS project
Berna and the good people at Fotorim magazine must have been a bit starved for content for their April issue, as they kindly produced an interview with me, discussing a project covering HIV/AIDS in Vietnam and thoughts on photography in general. You can read the whole thing in both Turkish and English over here on [...]
A Canadian winter
It’s been eight years since I experienced the charms of a full Canadian winter. But I am back again for three months, taking a leave from Vietnam for the birth of my first child. In Halifax, arcticy winds reached 105km/hr yesterday, making it about -300 million Centigrade. There’s a crisp layer of snow already on [...]
Urban panoramas
I’ve been working with a real estate consulting firm the past few months, photographing some of their projects in Hanoi and Danang. Most of the shoots were at construction sites, in varying stages of development. Here’s an image shot from the roof of a hotel in Hanoi, overlooking the southern edge of Hai Ba Trung [...]
Flood coverage : the bigger picture and a self-critique
I received some very nice emails and phone calls from concerned family and friends the past few days, as they watched TV and Internet coverage of the Hanoi floods from afar. I was surprised when they asked after my safety and well-being. After all, the flooding, although fairly serious in pockets of the city, had [...]
Hanoi floods
On Friday, it started raining. And raining. And raining, and raining. . . . apparently the heaviest single rainfall in 35 years. I was out Friday and Saturday, taking pictures of people coping with flooded streets, in some places waist-high with a mixture of rain, lake water and sewage. The first floors of most people’s [...]
Canon Photo Marathon Vietnam 2008
Canon is hosting its annual Photo Marathon, next weekend in Hanoi, and the following weekend in Saigon. It looks like a fun event, and a great way to jumpstart a little creativity and meet other shooters around town at the same time. Here’s the skinny: Hanoi: 11 Oct 2008 Ho Chi Minh City: 18 Oct [...]
Hanoi’s blue notes
Last week I was shooting an assignment on the jazz scene in Hanoi. I’m not sure if Hanoi’s reputation for having an actual jazz “scene” is warranted, but if there is a scene, its focal point has always been – and continues to be – Minh’s Jazz Club, in the heart of the old quarter. [...]
TIME Magazine Hero of the Environment 2008: Vo Quy
I had a really fun portrait assignment with TIME Magazine last week. They were doing their environmental heroes issue, and Hannah Beech had written about Vo Quy, a gentle, good-humoured 79 year-old ornithologist and a strong voice for environmental awareness in a country that has seen incredible urban and industrial growth in the past two [...]
John McCain’s host at the Hanoi Hilton
Meet Tran Trong Duyet, a former guard at the Hoa Lo prison (Hanoi Hilton) in Hanoi where Republican presidential hopeful John McCain spent over five years as a POW after being shot down over Hanoi during the Vietnam War. The image on the Left is Duyet today, the image on the Right is a portrait [...]
How to spend a quiet Sunday afternoon….
Yesterday a did a shoot with my friend Thao, who is finishing up her studies at the London School of Fashion here in Hanoi. Most of the fashion work I do is documentary or behind-the-scenes, but I’ve worked with Thao before and had a blast. So when she called me and asked if I was [...]
HIV/AIDS in Vietnam
I recently completed an assignment with UNAIDS in northern Vietnam. We tried to show some of the projects that they’re involved in here, from an MSM (Men who have Sex with Men) cabaret night in Hanoi, to HIV/AIDS clinics, support groups and rehabilitation centres in the surrounding countryside. Its a tricky topic to cover here, [...]
Vietnam Wedding Photography: not just a catchy name
A little self-promotion here: Vietnam Wedding Photography, a joint-venture with fellow Hanoi-based snapper Aidan Dockery, is now in full swing. The new website is scheduled to be up and running in a few weeks, and in the meantime there’s a little blog we’re posting with photos from wedding shoots around the country. Its an interesting [...]
Thien Nhan, miracle baby
Here’s a link to a friend’s fundraising blog for Thien Nhan: “Abandonned at birth on July 15th, 2006, Thien Nhan was mauled by a dog, resulting in the loss of his entire right leg, testicles and penis. On mid-March 2007 he was adopted by a Vietnamese family in Hanoi, and is now seeking sponsors to [...]