Inspired by Everyday Africa, Everyday Vietnam is a collective of photographers working in different parts of Vietnam with diversity in photographic styles and genres. With this diversity and curated submissions by Instagram users through hashtag #everydayvietnam, this project seeks a more in-depth look into contemporary Vietnam from insiders’ view. On the first day of the year of the rooster 2017, photographer Pham Ba Linh, also known as Linh Suzu, curated 12 photos from projects from last year.
Pham Ba Linh: Although Everyday Vietnam does not particularly focus on journalistic issues, this project does reflect national current affairs and cultural events in 2016 through their broad coverage and members’ unique perspectives.
A few days just before Tet (Lunar New Year) of 2016, Justin Mott took a picture of a tuberculosis patient examining the X-ray scan of his own lungs at the National Lung Hospital in Hanoi. Despite of limited healthcare facilities and a lack of awareness of prevention, Vietnam is making attempts to push prevalence rates down to 20/1000 by 2030.
Tho Ha village festival of Van Ha, Viet Yen district, Bac Giang province still preserves the unique cultural identity of Kinh Bac area with the formal procession of the tutelary god and familiar melodies of quan ho (love duet) performed on the river and in communal house. This festival is also photographer Hai Thanh’s favorite and is documented by him every year.
This is an interesting and rare point of view from Linh Pham, although the tradition is popular among Vietnamese at new year’s eve. The tradition of bathing with corriander leaves is believed to ward off dust and bad luck of last year to welcome a new year with good fortune.
Filmmaker Greg Kohs tells a story about H’mong children in Sapa with their hobby of wooden cart racing with his short film filmed by an iPhone, in a recent trip to Vietnam.
Quoc-Anh Tran’s photo depicts the local living landscape of Hue people where their lives seamlessly integrate into the ancient architecture of the former capital. Recently, there have been many controversies surrounding preserving Hue’s ancient architectural monuments as the conserving and restoring work has not been carefully researched.
Photographer Tran Vu Trung presents an uncommon view inside workers’ public bathroom at a coal mine in Quang Ninh. With more than 3 billion tons of reserves, Quang Ninh coal mines have been exploited for more than 100 years for national and exporting use.
The year 2016 marks a sudden surge in Chinese tourists in Nha Trang, with 364.000 arrivals, almost 400% higher than last year, as well as illegal Chinese tour operators and simmering disputes about the shortcomings of their arrivals in Vietnam. These changes are being documented by photographer Nguyen Thanh Duong.
The controversial project of Fansipan cable car in Sapa, Lao Cai has been completed and officially opened in February 2016. Arguments revolving around conflicts of interests between financial and touristic benefits, as well as the fear of destroying the ecosystem and deluding the local culture due to the flush of tourists are yet to reach a conclusion. Photo by Belen Alcat.
A piece from Quinn Ryan Mattingly’s series about children’s deformities caused by agent orange, which still persists until today, after the Vietnam war has ended nearly half a century ago.
Photographer Pham Ba Linh captured young girls and guys at the age of registering for identity cards in Da Nang. According to statistics from United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Vietnam currently has the youngest population unprecedented in history, with people from the age of 10 to 24 making up 40% of the population. This reality poses many challenges in child protection and creating jobs for the working ages.
With a unique access, photographer Ami Ha has cleverly documented a surgery at Bach Mai hospital. Even without drama, the complexity of the surgery and the surgeons’ utmost concentration still shine through.
This is breakfast time in a rural market in the mountainous province of Ha Giang, where the temperature is often colder than other parts of the country and a steaming bowl of noodles is a popular and appealing dish. Photographer Chu Việt Hà has captured this daily yet heartwarming moment of children savoring their meal.
