Toward the end of last year I had an idea to start a weekly print promotion, offering discounts on one selected print each week. New images are usually added each Monday, and all you need to do is drop me a quick line to request a discount code. There are many sizes and options available, and even some products can be printed with the images.

So, above you’ll find the first ten or so choices, and the gallery will be updated each week with a new image. If you see something you like in the slideshow, just click  to go straight through to the purchase page, and the rest should hopefully be pretty understandable. If not, just give me a shout and I’ll help.

A few weeks ago, I visited the island of Con Dao, off the southern coast of Vietnam. It’s a fairly strange place; combining somewhat equal parts of tropical paradise and brutal history within its coastlines. It is still fairly undeveloped, with only three real hotels, one of which is much more luxurious and unaffordable than the others, and few activities to require your attention. But there are a few relics of its past that provide a sobering look at those who visited the island on pretenses other than travel and relaxation.

A complex of several prisons, built by the French, and later utilized by the Vietnamese and the Americans still remain. Many of the cells and ‘Tiger Cages’ are also fitted out with very life-like models of those who resided and were tortured here, that give you a lot more to look at than just empty rooms and their ghosts. I won’t go into a long historical lecture, but I’d encourage you to read more about it if you’re so inclined.  Below are a few of the images I found especially poignant, and wanted to share.

From what the models show, them men remained shackled in the cells, and the woman slightly more free.

I asked a caretaker what this scene represented. She said the woman had ripped out her own innards and thrown them on the face of the guard. I had no more words to questions to reply with.

As noted in the last post of images from NYC, I was stateside for the month of October, splitting time between the Empire State, and the Buckeye State, aka Ohio, where I generally claim to be from. I typically only visit in December, but this year in the fall afforded me the opportunity to check out a football game at my former alma mater, which I graduated from longer ago than it really seems. A few friends of mine, who played right next to me in our time, are now the coaches, so I thought I would ask to come make a few photographs of the lead up to the final game of the season with their sworn rivals from the other side of the county. It was interesting to me being back in this world of American high school sports, as this concept basically doesn’t exist in Asia, where I have spent more than half of my years since leaving. Below are a few images of the team and the school preparing for and playing on the last Friday night of the season, which was a pretty well hyped and watched match-up.

At the pep rally, the senior football players were blindfolded, and led to believe they would share a licorice rope, and upon completion, a kiss, with some of the pretty girls of the school. But they were surprised to be face to face with their mothers when the blindfolds were removed. Pretty funny I thought, though potentially embarrassing as hell for a seventeen year old boy in front of the whole school.

I can remember well, these times of quiet concentration in the locker room, with heavy metal blasting, trying to prepare yourself mentally for the game.

Coach V was also a coach I played under a number of years ago, though I won’t specify how many for both our sakes.

The coach gives some final motivational words before he field is taken, and the game begins.

Though a very hard-fought game on both sides of the ball, in the end, the Astros fell to the Falcons 7-21.

A few more images are found in the archived gallery.

Last month took me out of Asia, and back to America for a month. Apart from a few weeks spent with family and friends at home, the main reason for my visit was to attend the Eddie Adams Workshop in New York (images from that coming soon). After a few busier than I’ve ever had days there, there were a few extra days to spend sort of  bumming around NYC, visiting friends, taking in the sites, and playing with my new favorite thing, which essentially was built for photography like this. Below are a few of the shots that I liked, in no real particular order or narrative, while wandering around this city I really love, and just don’t visit enough.

A little stroll around some of  the Wall Street shenanigans. The interwebs are already flooded with way too many of these images, so I won’t bore you with more than three.

I’m just fascinated by the Hasidic Jewish communities of the city. I would love to do an in-depth project on them, but I’m not sure that will ever happen.

A trip around the city without some shots on the subways is just not possible.

I stayed with a friend in Brooklyn. This is from the top of his building.

It was in a very African-American community, and artworks like these were found everywhere. I think they are pretty beautiful.

I happen to be there on the day the new iPhone came out, and thought it would be a good idea to visit the big 5th Ave. store. It wasn’t really. Utter chaos is the best way to describe that scene. But outside the store, there was something much more calm and beautiful.

And finally, in the car on the way to the airport. My time in the big apple was over for this year. Hopefully I’ll return soon…

A few weeks or months ago now, I received an email just before going to bed. I thought it was spam, but took a few seconds to read it, and it actually sounded sort of interesting. The basic pitch was this; I’m from TLC virtual book tour company, (new concept for me too) and since you are a photographer in Vietnam with a blog, would you like to receive and review this book by Errol Morris about photography?  Being a self-confessed documentary junkie, and a fan of Morris’s films, as well as having not read a good book for a while, it sounded like a good deal. Anyway boring story short, I got the book in the mail, and have been reading it for a few weeks now, and below is a quick synopsis of what’s between the covers.

Lazy reader alert: it boils down to discussions about photojournalistic practices and ethics, something that is always important to understand and think about.

The book is divided into four long form essays, that actually read and play out much like one of Morris’s many great documentaries. The first essay revolves around two curiously made frames of one scene, thought to be the first photographs of war, thus their importance. Essentially, one image has cannonballs strewn all over the road, and the other has them moved off into the ditches. So the question becomes, which photo came first? Did the photographer, Roger Fenton, put on or remove the cannonballs from the road, and why? If he moved them there, was he trying to deceive us into feeling the scene was more dangerous than it was, or for other reasons? Or if he removed them, then for what reasons? The debate actually gets quite philosophical, and scientific as Morris wades through investigation and theories, but basically concludes that Fenton moved the balls onto the road for the 2nd shot, but disagrees that he did it for the unethical reasons that his detractors tried to pin on him. So it comes down to this: are there any good reasons for altering scenes in documentary or photojournalism?

Another essay, based around a few of the FSA (part of a program under Roosevelt to document the face of the depression) photographers from the depression era, covers the same ideas. If things in a scene are altered and then captured, what was the reason for it? Was it for propaganda, or other subjective ideas the photographer wanted to relate, or was it for more simple, innocent, aesthetic purposes? The first image taken into consideration was Arthur Rothstein’s image of the cow skull and the drought in Kansas.

It’s now widely known, and admitted by Rothstein, that he moved the cow skull from a grassy patch, to a dried and cracked pond bed, to better illustrate the drought that was sweeping the American west. Upon this discovery, all forms of media were quick to demonize him for attempting to create propaganda, and he was essentially discredited. Even to the point that another of his images, one still very widely known, and still very powerful today, was even brought into question.

He insists that it was nothing apart from a brilliant capture at the right time and place, and that he did nothing to encourage its creation. But the point remains; if as a documentary photographer, you’re found to have altered anything in one of your images, essentially the credibility of all of your images comes into question. Once your name is in the mud, it’s hard to get it back out again.

This same question also works itself out in an image by the great Walker Evans, in which an alarm clock mysteriously appears on the mantle of a sharecroppers family’s cabin. He was known to be one of the best, and most reliable photographers of his day. Would he alter a scene to enhance an image, for good reasons or not, or was it just happenstance? You’ll need to read the book to learn more…

It reminds me more recently of Marco Vernaschi, an amazing photographer, whose stunningly powerful and beautiful images can hit you like a truck. While working on a story about witchcraft in Africa, he was essentially found out to have had paid a family to exhume the body of their daughter so that he could photograph it. Of course, all forms of ethics are at play here. I’ll leave it to you to read much more about it here if you like, and also take a look at his work, which may be called into question, but it’s power I think is hard to deny.

Another long form essay revolves around the now infamous images captured at Abu Ghraib torture prison in Iraq. Much of this discussion parallels the documentary Standard Operating Procedure, a must see film for sure. It comes down to piecing the images together to determine what went on in those dark spaces of our military, and who were the real culprits. The most interesting take away for me in the discussion, was the interpretation of the photo of a young woman soldier giving a thumbs up and a smile over the corpse of a detainee who had died or was killed under their watch. Yes, the photo makes her look like a terrible human being, but upon further investigation by an expert in facial features and emotions, he determined, yes she was smiling, but it was a fake smile for the camera. When a person is really, truly happy from the inside, their eyes take on sort of a different form, and that’s not visible here. The take away for me was the importance of the emotions in people’s faces as your documenting them. They can be quite telling of a person’s soul, or it seems at times, can also be quite misleading.

There are a few other images and discussions, but we’re going a bit long here, so just to conclude quickly, this book is a very interesting read for all photographers I think, and relates especially well to those of us working in photojournalism and documentary. The final point to swirl around in your brain: Is there any real hard and fast truth in photography? Even if we never lay a finger on the scenes before our lens, aren’t we relaying our own ideas and world views via the compositions we shoot, and the images we include or don’t include in our edits? Great stuff to think about. Pick up the book here, and check it out for yourself.

In somewhat typical fashion, I have intentions for this to be the beginnings of a project, which really means I hope to make it back to the area soon to find some more frames. Tentative plans to head up to Vietnam’s final frontier, Ha Giang, this month were foiled by very busy schedules, but hopefully a bit later this year I’ll make it happen…

These images come from in and around Sa Pa, a small tourist town set amongst majestic mountain scenery and inhabited mostly by ethnic minority tribes, such as the Hmong and Dzao, both of which even have their own subdivisions designated by the colors they wear. Anyway, I was in the area working on a commercial project, but luckily got outside a number of times to take in the grandeur. Below are a selection of frames, that are hopefully the initial stages of a future project.

The north of Vietnam near the Chinese border has nothing if not stunning, grand landscapes that two-dimensional images can barely do justice.

Youth stand on an unfinished structure overhanging the terraced rice paddies below.

An ethnic minority market in the small mud-laden village of Hmong Hum, about 2 hours drive over the rugged mountain roads from the town of Sa Pa.

Loose tobacco, known as thuoc lao, is sold in bulk and inhaled via what is essentially a bong made of bamboo.

In the center of the market, a small spat erupts between young men.

I’m not sure if the spilled rice was the cause or the effect of the fight, but in any case, in very Vietnamese fashion, it caused a scene that drew a crowd of onlookers.

Buffalo are an essential part of the existence in the north, much like many other areas of the country. Children of not so many years are often the ones given charge of the large, powerful creatures.

Terraced rice fields define much of the landscape here.

On a high remote hillside, a father and son become one.

At the park in the center of the town of Sa Pa, young Hmong girls are more concerned with play than with selling the handmade trinkets that generally constructs their days.

Even as they grow older, both manufacturing and selling these traditional items to tourists will become their primary career. Formal education seems to have very little necessity or means of support in this rugged landscape. However, these girls are often nearly fluent in several popular languages, and can offer a rebuttal to almost any tourist who gives an excuse for not buying from them.

The slightly more aged youth picked up an unfinished bottle of beer, and before consuming it himself, took liberties to share it with his younger friend as the smaller boy’s father looked on.

At another local minority market called Coc Ly, makeshift barber shops are set up each day. Needing little more than a mirror and chair, these can also be found in nearly everywhere in the country.

Age in three parts: On another high hillside, a teenaged girl and her family prepare hemp stalks for sale. These bundles can be seen drying all along the mountainous roads.

Perhaps not so many years pass on before the time to bear your own children is at hand. In these environs, the work needed for survival is non-stop, and new generations are of course welcome additions to the able hands and bodies.

Even well into age, the grind of life must continue. Walking sometimes up to several hours to buy or sell goods is, and may always be, the way of life in these parts.

The large animals that are a staple of daily life, also appear to be commodities after they’ve expired, though while they’re still in bodily form, they are taken care of as well as possible.

In another corner of the small market, an improvised photo studio provides captured moments and existences, which are often luxury items in this part of the country.

A fairly frantic monkey is caged behind a rustic restaurant that greets tourists at the end of a river boat trip.

And finally, agriculture, stunning natural beauty and hard work are the defining characteristics in this corner of the world.

A few additional images are found in the archived gallery.

A few weeks ago now I began a pretty large scale commercial assignment for a chain of high end hotels, the first of which took me to Chau Doc, Vietnam, which lies right on the border with Cambodia. Along with shooting the interiors of the hotels, part of the job is also capturing the interesting sights in their general vicinity that guests can visit. One of these in Chau Doc are the Cham villages. Cham people are descendants of the former Champa Kingdom, and also found in a few other areas of Vietnam and Cambodia, though they practice different religions. Those near here are Muslim, while others farther north may also be Hindu. They speak Vietnamese, as well as their own language. Upon visiting this village, I met several people who, speaking American English, told me that they were preparing for a wedding the next day, and in typical friendly fashion, invited me to come back for it. Luckily our shooting schedule permitted, and I did just that. It was quite interesting, the people couldn’t have been nicer, and these are a few of the frames I caught during an early morning village wedding.

Some gathered outside the house in waiting

while others in the wedding party got ready inside.

A hired band with an open mic policy provided music that could be heard by anyone within several hundred meters it seemed.

This, which I captured the on the first day’s visit, and how I learned there was to be a wedding,

became lunch for the more than one hundred villagers who joined the celebration.

As all was being prepared, guests moved through the small village to the home.

Some by foot, and some by the local traditional transport called a xe loi, essentially a bicycle with a cart attached.

As others gathered at the house, the men gathered at the mosque to carry out their wedding traditions.

Once ready, they all made their way the fifty meters or so to the house where all were waiting. The groom’s attire I thought was quite interesting, almost resembling something like an Arab sheik to me.

The father of the bride seemed to have this thousand yard stare about him the whole time.

The couple, I think were actually married in a very small, hot and crowded room, which I tried to access, but could see nothing of them. Only backs of heads and cameras. But when the vows were taken pretty quickly, they emerged and went next door to the easier to access ‘picture room.’

Following a cavalcade of photos, they rejoined the guests for the well known cake part of weddings, and it seemed like that’s where the loose narrative ends. Below are just a few extra frames for fun.

Youth in traditional prayer position.

These three boys were the grooms accompaniments, seen above bearing gifts.

She and her family were from this village, but now live in Pennsylvania. It was them I met the morning of the first visit, looking like villagers, but speaking just like I do, that caught be a bit off guard, but was definitely a welcome surprise.

And the final frame I snapped on my way out. Following all the ceremony, a youngster enjoys his lunch apart from the rest of the crowd.

I haven’t done too much multimedia or video work recently, beyond these two pieces which my friend just posted, so I thought I would also share them here now. I worked with the same crew of friends on both of them as the DP, and also did a majority of the camera work.

This was the most recent one, just finished about a month ago. It was a corporate video for the Vietnam division of an international media agency.

(make sure the CC button is on for subtitles)

This one was done last October as a part of the 48 Film Project in Ho Chi Minh City. Like it sounds, you have 48 hours to write, produce and edit a short film, while adhering to a few conditions given to you by the organizers. Essentially, on Friday night we received our film genre, and began writing it not long after. We shot all day and night Saturday, forgoing sleep and wrapping about 8am on Sunday morning. I went home for a bit of shut eye as the others holed up in the editing room. We got it finished, exported and delivered with about fifteen minutes to spare. It was a pretty crazy and busy weekend, but was quite a lot of fun.

It’s about an hour ride from Saigon to Ben San, one of several leprosy centers in Vietnam. On the way, I chat with Dr. Hai, the current director of the center, and learn an interesting fact. I ask questions about the patients, and he corrects me. “Actually, we don’t have any leprosy patients here. We call them ex-patients.” The bacterial skin disease was totally wiped out here more than ten years ago he goes on to explain to me. Yet, referring to those in his care as such is both a correct statement, and a misnomer at the same time. Yes, leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, is treatable and with antibiotics and other treatments can and has been eradicated. But its effects, both physical and social, last a lifetime.  Not different from any other countries where it claims victims, lepers in Vietnam are essentially cast from their homes and from society, generally never to return. Ben San is both a hospital to treat those with lingering effects, and a sprawling ground, with private homes, where those who are well enough, live with their families in a safer and more comfortable environment than living at large outside its gates.

These images were made on my first visit to the center, after a very warm welcome from Dr. Hai and his associates. I have intentions to bring this as a larger scale multimedia project, and hope to return in a few weeks to continue. Below are a few of the scenes I captured over a day of visiting the residents and staff, who also couldn’t have been more open to being photographed.

One of several women who share a residence on the grounds of Ben San.

The grounds cover quite a large area, so staff move about on bicycles to check on those living on the property.

The vast majority of the ex-patients are quite elderly, and require many kinds of care. I met several residents who have called Ben San home for more than three and four decades.

Leprosy can take hold in many parts of the body. Hands and feet are common and obvious afflictions, as well as loss of the ability to blink one’s eyes, which causes dryness and loss of protection from debris. Sunglasses must be worn at nearly all times of the day for some.

Passing the days with entertainment is an ongoing challenge for many, who have resided here for many years.

Those with wounds on their feet must have them cleaned and attended to several times a day. Just as with the hands, it’s a tightening of the internal nerves that ‘retract’ the fingers and toes. They don’t fall off, as many tend to think.

For those with foot lesions and some mobility remaining, special shoes must be worn, which are custom crafted on site.

The center also supports a mental health ward, for those with both leprotic and mental illnesses. Patients in this ward are allowed a lesser degree of freedom as it were, mostly confined to small, cell-like rooms, but are still encouraged to help each other whenever possible.

Dominos seemed to be a favorite pastime of both residents and staff. Even without extremities, they manage the pieces quite well.

Also attacked can be the cartilage of the nose, which causes its eventual collapse.

In the mental ward, a very elderly man is restrained to his bed in a small room. Though it’s not the most humane of tactics, the minimal staff find it necessary for those with predilections for movement, as they could injure themselves with unnoticed movements.

A woman helps both fellow residents and staff with the set up and clean up of items needed for meals.

To be fair, most of the residents whom I was able to speak with were incredibly friendly and full of energy, but this man, upon seeing my camera, struck a pose which seems to encompass what he still has inside, and is pretty unforgetable.

As many are essentially immobile, bed sores must be treated on a daily basis.

Religion is also an outlet for many, with a Catholic church on the grounds. Here, a woman reads the bible in Chinese.

A staff member finds a few moments of solitude and solace in the cathedral.

Those with some remaining independence often spend their days taking care of others and helping the staff wherever possible.

That’s it for now. There are a few more images in the archived gallery, and continuations of the project will hopefully come to fruition soon.

I haven’t put up any tearsheets for a while, so here are a few from the last month or two.

The two latest editions of The Word HCMC. Pdf copies can be downloaded here. Pizza edtion should be online soon, for here, here’s the article on Saigon’s best delivery pizzas, and a few printed pages of it.

This man has been sitting in the old post office of Saigon for quite a few decades now. He helps people translate and write letters between Vietnamese, English and French. He’s a pretty fascinating guy. The article isn’t on our website yet, but here’s another one that will tell a bit of his story.

For Generation V, aka Kids, we profiled a group of expat kids who are trying to keep themselves entertained by doing Parkour around the city.

A few of the images from the circus were published. There are also images from backstage here.

And finally, moving on to another publication. I recently did some work for Tiger Tales, the inflight magazine of Tiger Airways, based in Singapore. The piece was on kitesurfing at Mui Ne Beach. This was the story that took us several trips to the beach and attempts to complete, as the weather didn’t want to cooperate the first few times.

The article, with my name botched once again, is found here. That’s it for now. More to come soon.