Hanoi street portraits 4.3

I took these pictures before breakfast on a Tuesday. I really should take my camera out in the early morning more often.





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I took these pictures before breakfast on a Tuesday. I really should take my camera out in the early morning more often.





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This is now the fourth wave of my occasional Hanoi street portraits series. These were taken earlier this week in the An Duong neighbourhood, near my home.





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Women without hats
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The air in Hanoi is almost constantly filled with the sound of buzzing, drilling and crashing as construction and renovation projects big and small spill out on to the streets. It’s no surprise then, that whole streets are dedicated to the selling of drills, cables, tools, wire and, er, other metal stuff (I’m not an expert in this field, I’ll admit). These pictures were all taken last month in one such street, round the back of the old football stadium






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You’re never far from a street market in Hanoi. They’re a gift for the wandering photographer. These pictures were all taken last month in the area around Van Mieu and the rail station.










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From the street markets of Hanoi, with apologies to the squeamish.


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It often seems like Hanoi is in the midst of an endless cycle of knocking itself down and building itself up again. On almost every street, there’s construction or demolition work going on. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference. When I first came to Vietnam, I was surprised to see so many women working on construction sites, but now, like so much else, it’s just normal. I need to remind myself sometimes that even if an image is familiar (to me), it can still be worth photographing.
These pictures – which mostly have nothing to do with construction at all – were all taken in the streets around Van Mieu, the area best known for the Temple of Literature, this month.













A calligrapher, a birdkeeper and a chef walked into a bar… and none of them could think of a punchline.



Every now and then, I post a series of yellow-based pictures. It’s not my favourite colour, but it is Hanoi’s.





I’m slowly getting back into the rhythm of taking photographs again, after another of my all too regular lulls. These four pictures were taken in Hanoi’s Dong Da district a couple of weekends ago and, in my mind at least, all fit into a loose ‘framing’ theme.


