Last Friday, October 20, Matca held a small birthday party to celebrate this one-year-old labor of love. During this one year, we have had the honor of meeting, working with and receiving support from so many interesting individuals in the Vietnamese photographic community in particular and the art community in general. The last party is our chance to sincerely thank everyone who have welcomed this project until now.
Perhaps this is a good time for us to reflect on the path we have traveled together. In a chilly day in Hanoi like today, three friends including Linh Pham, Nguyen Anh and Dat Vu have sit down together after some time working separately to discuss building a small but tight-knit and supportive photographic community. Although the works of these three image makers are vastly different, they share the common decision of following photography as a career. Their diverse practices, together with their open mindset, has actually filled the gaps among one another’s knowledge and experiences. A group of three, despite being tiny, is ironically the only place where Linh Pham, Nguyen Anh and Dat Vu feel a sense of belonging.
Matca has been born ever since in the form of a small website to share resources including photo essays as well as what we know about photography in theory and practice. However, there comes a time when each one of us thinks to themselves: “Our own knowledge and the available documents about Vietnamese photography are so limited, when will we run out of content?”. With a little help from our friends, who are similarly passionate and willing to contribute, new stories keep presenting themselves. From a group of three, Matca has grown into a community project developed in both breadth and depth from a big number of local and international photography practitioners.
In a late summer day of 2017, the team of Matca has decided to embark on a cross-country journey to look out for stories about photography throughout Vietnam. This experiences has once again confirmed the love that old and new friends have given us. From veteran photographers from the previous generation like Duong Minh Long and Long Thanh to young students at Café Saigon Hem, everybody has welcomed Matca with kindness and generosity. The further we travel, the more we reckon how limited our understanding about the local photography history has been. We have not been able to fully grasped the past, let alone the ever-changing and multifaceted contemporary photography scene out there.
One year might not be long, but to Matca it is a time full of unforgettable memories and encounters. From the bottom of our heart, we thank you for having accompanied us and we look forward to your participation in the challenging but no less exciting journey ahead.
