Taking Images of Strangers. Thoughts and Shots from Vietnam

If when I was a child I had been told, that I would live for years like this on the edge of the world in the tropics, seeing exotic plants and animals every day, I would have been the happiest child.

Another question is that the world has no "edge" in the 21st century. Everything is so intertwined nowadays, millions of cameras broadcast everything on social media, and everyone travels so often... And this fact seems to devalue the entire experience. Simply having something is never enough for us, humans, - we want to have it exclusively. Herd beings. that's why. We see hierarchies everywhere, with a cozy place at the top for ourselves. And perhaps this is not bad. After all, we, humans, are primates, and it is not right to deny our nature.

The boy I was once would also be surprised to learn how shyness would one day be left behind. I mean, I feel embarrassed regularly but I have come to a deep understanding that a healthy portion of shyness is a positive trait. I also realized that awkward situations do not ruin life but rather decorate it. And I keep in mind that when I photograph strangers.

The truth is that I have another limiter: interest in people.

When such interest arises in me, I begin to see individuality in the flow of people and their beauty as characters, and this awakens the ability and desire to photograph them.

Nevertheless, I usually focus on scenes rather than on certain people, like, a yellowish fence with three people drinking coffee, and parked motorbike. And that makes me feel more confident: I focus on city life, not on someone's private life, beauty, or ugliness.

If someone doesn't want to be photographed, they can sabotage the shot. It's their right. Moreover, such hiding people can make a good picture.

Sometimes, I ask for consent with a gesture, and if people say "no", I always say thank you cheerfully. But that's Vietnam - people usually don't mind or just happy. And there are reasons for that.

Of course, being a foreigner is helpful. You are a traveler and everyone knows that travelers like taking images. Also, Vietnamese care about the reputation of Vietnam so they want to show their country is the most friendly place. But that's not all.

The Vietnamese have this special set of mind you can see in the way they drive and park motorbikes and how they use the common space on sidewalks. They do create obstacles for other drivers and passersby and suppose that other people will calmly weave through the road filled with moving and parked bikes, tables, chairs, stalls, goods, tools, etc. If everyone is suppose to weave through others, what's the problem with taking photographs of strangers? Just keep weaving through and smile.

And, no, this is not "Asian". The Thais are the opposite. They avoid creating obstacles, even emotional obstacles for people around them. But Vietnamese don't care about being inconvenient to others since, in Vietnam, every person is supposed to be water calmly flowing around everything on its way.

This is how I feel about the Vietnamese, maybe, I am wrong...

Secondly, less touristy areas are much easier. People aren't tired of foreigners' attention. Moreover, they sometimes ask you to photograph them.

This amazing lady called me over when I was passing and I only could understand that she wanted to be photographed (I preferred to understand this way 😁). I was confused with the scene where two persons were posing while others kept playing cards so... probably, I failed to take a good image from the point of compostion... but I still like something in this photograph.

This Vietnamese man asked me to stop and have a talk with his guest, a guy from Uganda. Probably, he was sorry he couldn't speak English to entertain the African. Alas, when people start posing, it's usually difficult to do anything except just push the button.

The youth called me to have a general talk. So people are quite sociable (and that's another difference with Thailand where people don't want to bother strangers). But Vietnamese people respect your time and are endowed with tact so meeting strangers is easy here.

All I said are generalizations. There are different people in Vietnam, and not everyone loves being photographed.

But, yeah, this country in general is really friendly to street photography. And I hope I can take full advantage of this opportunity.

More stories from Southeast Asia are ahead! Check out my previous posts on my personal Travelfeed or Worldmappin map.

I took these images with a Nikkor 50mm on a full-frame DSLR Nikon D750 in September 2024, in Hue, Vietnam.