red river | Without an H

Red River brick factories (III)

161120-293-edited-2

These crumbling, dusty, ramshackle brick factories just outside Hanoi were one of my favourite photography destinations last year. As well as the striking colours and patterns, I hope that these pictures convey something of the resilience of the factory workers, and the fine balance between disorder and routine. I keep meaning to go back and shoot some more there. In the absence of new new pictures, here are some new old pictures from last autumn, which I had intended to post these a couple of months ago, only for them to slip through the net somehow.

161021-133-edited

161021-157-edited

161021-218-edited

161120-430-edited

161021-179-edited

161021-311-edited

161105-577-edited

161105-170-edited

161105-201-edited

161105-368-edited

161105-304-edited

161105-464-edited

161105-505-edited

161105-526-edited

161105-115-edited

161021-336-edited

161120-270-edited

161105-725-edited

161105-006-edited

Red River brick factories (II)

161021-340-edited

Drive north out of Hanoi over Thang Long bridge, turn left and follow the dyke road for a couple of miles, and you’ll come to a cluster of brick factories on the banks of the Red River. Last autumn, following the advice of a friend who knows that side of the river well, I made a few trips to this location, and began to try to document what I saw.

There are about a dozen factories at this site, separated by rows and rows of bricks, countless bricks drying in the sun. The pictures I took there combine some of my favourite things in photography: strong colours, especially the earthy tones of the bricks and the land, geometric patterns and, most importantly for me, the human element, people in their environment, leading their everyday lives, in this case, the tough, repetitive labour of producing staggering quantities of bricks in the autumn heat. My aim with these pictures is to show the reality of that demanding work without romanticising it, and without dehumanising the men and women who work there.

Last month, as I mentioned in my previous post, some of my pictures from this project were published in Word magazine here in Vietnam. In this post, I’m sharing some of the photographs from the series that didn’t make it into print.

161021-074-edited

161021-101-edited

161021-273-edited

161021-327-edited

161105-053-edited

161105-191-edited

161105-214-edited

161105-416-edited

161105-553-edited

161105-587-edited

161105-603-edited

161105-713-edited

161120-442-edited

161120-368-edited

161120-407-edited

Red River brick factories (in Word magazine)

brick-factories-word-magazine-1

I’m very happy to see some of my pictures in print this month. Word magazine has published some of my photographs of the brick factories on the Red River, just outside Hanoi. I’ll post some more pictures from this series soon, and write a little more about the location, which I got a little obsessed with back in the autumn, but in the meantime, here are the pages from the magazine. I enjoy sharing my pictures here on the blog, but there’s definitely something special about being in print. I’ll have to make sure it happens more often…

brick-factories-word-magazine-2