Vietnam Through My Eyes
by Westley Dang
[Read this article in Vietnamese here]
“If you can smell the street by looking at the photo, then it’s a street photograph” — Bruce Gilden.
Acclimating to the hustle and bustle of this city. It’s chaotic. It’s stimulating. The streets smell like fish sauce and mysterious puddles. The insides smell like fish sauce and mothballs.
People wear masks because the dust can be unrelenting, hoisted and foisted by motorbikes used for both personal transport and construction carriage.I bought some because I figured the locals here must know something I don’t. Because I don’t know anything at all.
Here, a woman plays Frogger in the street while scooter traffic usually never stops.
As an American-born person of Vietnamese descent, I imagine my experience is much different than for most travelers here in Vietnam.
Despite the huge difference between our worlds, only a small stroke of misfortune would have thrust me on the other side of this divide — on the other side of this camera.
It could have been me doing construction work in flip flops, welding without a helmet, being confined to cooking and serving street food for the family business, and watching rich Americans look down on me as objects of curiosity.
I grew up with my dad imploring me to understand how lucky I have it to have been born in America, but without me being here to experience it for myself, he might have had better luck explaining sight to a blind person.
Photos & story by Westley Dang @westleydang, from California, US.
Scenes captured in Ho Chi Minh city. Vietnam.Featured on @ig_vietnam.
