Nha Trang

Farniente

Originally uploaded by Christian Lagat.

Christian’s been doing some very exciting work in Vietnam!  He uses a Ricoh GR digital camera that is compact and easy to travel with.  Christian captures the gentle pace of the country and beautiful compositions of the shores of Nha Trang,  a place that I was too young to visit when I lived in Vietnam.
Check out his collection of Vietnam.  This set is from Can Tho where I used to live.  I’ll have to ask him his reasons and perhaps conduct an interview.

Duc:  So how do you find the opportunity to travel to Vietnam for Pictures

Christian:  Hi !  Thanks a lot again for your interest in my pictures !  I’ve been only one time in Vietnam. This year, in spring, for 3 weeks. It was a tourism travel with my wife and my 2 boys (15 & 13).
We really enjoined the trip…people, landscapes, food, everything was perfect !  We’ve been only in south and central Vietnam, and we would like go to north in the future.

I wanted to go there for years, because for my generation, specialy for people like me interesting in politic and history, Vietnam was the terrible background of our youth. When I was a kid in the 60’s, I was very impregnated by all the vietnamese city names I heard on the radio.
Another reason, is the fact that these recent years we travelled four times in india, and I knew that it will be very much “restful” to go in Vietnam for my kids and wife…;-)  Cam on.

Duc:  Hi Christian,  You are right about the names which have also impregnated my mind as well.  Especially, Nha Trang because my oldest sister went there to visit.  It was a very popular destination even back then.  I was too young to visit but saw photographs she brought back which was taken by a professional photographer.   At first, I thought you were a photojournalist working on a project on Vietnam. Your work is very impressive. Have you been photographing long?  What is your advice on travel photography? I like the India series. There have been serious documentary work done on India and Vietnam. Michael Ackerman and Mitch Epstein come to mind. Which photographers do you look at?

Christian:  In fact, now, I’m not vey interested by Photography with a big P.
I was a little bit when I was young, 30 years ago, when I read a lot of magazine and books (I remember to be very impressed by the work of Raymond Depardon and Don Mc Cullin) , but now, I’m just traveling, or walking in my own town, shooting and shooting !…;-)

Have a nice week-end.

Related Link:  Diligam’s set on Flickr of Pulau Bidong.

The Cat from Hue