In my last couple of posts, I tried to show something about the daily lives of the people in the narrow neighbourhoods between the dyke road and the Red River. I hope those pictures have a sense of place. The pictures in this post, taken in those same neighbourhoods, however, are all about faces and, I hope, character.
Between the Red River and the dyke road, there’s a long stretch of narrow neighbourhoods which are home to some of my favourite aspects of everyday Hanoi life, like markets, food stalls and men playing chequers in the street. These pictures were all taken during a few walks through these neighbourhoods last month.
[Apologies if this post looks familiar. I first published it last month, but accidentally deleted it, so I am posting it again now.]
The wholesale fruit and vegetable market under Long Bien bridge in Hanoi is at its busiest at night, when the city’s market traders buy their stock fresh from trucks newly arrived from the countryside. During the day it’s quieter, but there is always some activity. Here, pineapples are being delivered in the late afternoon.
The police in Hanoi are – how can I put this? – not known for their affability. So I was pleasantly surprised to find three in one afternoon who were all happy to have their photograph taken.
Back in January and February of last year, I posted a series of Hanoi street portraits, a collection of tightly-framed black and white portrait pictures, taken in my immediate neighbourhood. I briefly revived the idea one afternoon in October, but never got round to posting the resulting pictures – so here they are. I’ve been taking some more pictures in this style more recently, which I will be posting soon.
This is a slightly disjointed collection of pictures taken in various locations around Hanoi back in October last year.
Hanoi in February and March is often damp and gloomy, but there are always a few precious days when some weak, watery sunlight forces its way though the murk.
It’s been a while since I posted any pictures from Hanoi. I’ve spent the last few months editing and posting my pictures from my October / November trip to Myanmar. It took a long time to go through them all, because I’m slow and, to be fair, there were a lot of pictures. So while the blog has been travelling slowly through Myanmar, I’ve been back living and working here in Hanoi, not taking photographs. Or not taking very many. I’ve written before about how I find it difficult to keep the momentum going when I get back from a trip. Since coming back from Myanmar, I just haven’t often felt the inclination to go out and take pictures, and on the few occasions I have, I haven’t found it very satisfying. But last week, I took my first proper look at the pictures I took in Hanoi in February and March, and I was pleased to find that they’re not all completely terrible. And today, I went out with my camera and really enjoyed photography for the first time in ages. Some of those pictures will no doubt appear here in due course, but in the meantime, here are some pictures taken in February and March, in what passes for spring in Hanoi.
Finally, as a way of drawing a line under the Myanmar pictures, I have added a Streets of Yangon slideshow to my gallery page.
On my last but one day in Yangon, back in November, I found my way to Mingalar market, a huge multi-storey wholesale and retail market a little way north-east of the city centre. (A couple of days earlier while I was out taking pictures, I’d got chatting to a kind man who suggested it as a good location for people photography. This kind of simple helpfulness is typical of Myanmar.) Less obviously attractive, but far more interesting than the central Bogyoke market, Mingalar mainly stocked clothes and fabric, as well as pharmaceuticals and toiletries (as above). It’s a challenging place for a photographer. It’s cramped and crowded, and the people, though friendly, are understandably more interested in the business of buying and selling stuff than in accommodating clumsy photographers. And the light changes as you move around; at the edges, there’s warm natural sunlight from the open windows, while in the centre, there’s near darkness in some places, and harsh bare bulbs in others. But I always enjoy visiting and photographing markets in south-east Asia, and the morning I spent at Mingalar Zay was one of the most memorable of my four-week trip.
Since these pictures were taken, however, the market was gutted by a fire that broke out one night in January of this year. No-one was killed, fortunately, but there was a huge amount of damage. Many, if not all, of the stall-holders have had to be relocated. I wish them well. I understand that this isn’t the first time that the market has been hit by fire, so I’m sure that it will be up and running again soon.
I made two trips to Myanmar in 2015. I had a great time everywhere I went, but it was Yangon that caught my imagination most of all. I spent days just walking around, camera in hand, trying to capture the flavour of the place and the character of the people.
Without an H 