Ha Giang, the far North of Vietnam

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kiemchacsu

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Recently, I had a chance to visit Ha Giang again. That was my third time to be there but I always feel exited, the reason? May the pictures could explain some things. :)

Some notes from Wikipedia for brief instruction

Hà Giang ( listen) is a province in northeastern Vietnam. It is located in the far north of the country, and contains Vietnam’s northernmost point. It shares a 270 km long border with Yunnan province of southern China. Hence it is known as the final frontier of Vietnam. The province covers an area of 7945.8 square kilometres and as of 2008 it had a population of 705,100 people.[1]
The provincial capital is also called Ha Giang, which is connected by Highway 2 and is 320 km away from Hanoi. The border crossing is at Than Thui, 25 km from the Ha Giang town. It is one of the poorest provinces of Vietnam as it has highly rugged but scenic mountainous topography with least potential for agriculture development.[2][3][4][5][6]
The province borders China with a length of over 270 kilometres (170 mi); the border gate is known as the Thanh Thuy. In addition there are three smaller gates namely, the Pho Bang, the Xin Man and the Sam Pun.[7]
Click to expand...
And here we go, some pictures from that trip

1

Ha Giang 11/2011 by kiemchacsu, on Flickr

2

1111_58_M3_BW400CN by kiemchacsu, on Flickr

3

1111_59_M3_BW400CN by kiemchacsu, on Flickr

4

1111_67_M3_BW400CN by kiemchacsu, on Flickr

6

1111_45_M3_BW400CN by kiemchacsu, on Flickr

P.S: sorry for the confusion in the file name, it was a mistake while naming the scanned file. The film was FOMAPAN 100. Leica M6 | 35/2 V4
 
Excellent - they give a real feel of the place. We will go back to Vietnam at the end of this month, but to South Vietnam. Thanks for sharing a glimpse of this very unique part of the world. I am currently in Kalimantan, where outside of the cities the people also share a simple subsistence existence as portrayed in your photos.
 
These have a unique, kind of a theater set -like look to them.
Excellent compositions, by the way.
 
Wonderful subjects, interesting coverage. Would like to see more pictures.

(Just a suggestion: How about adding some silvery mid-tones and "sparkle" by developing the Fomapan 100 in D76 for example, if "gloomy" was not the style you have intended for? )
 
Wowww, lovely photos of minority peoples. Looks as the lighting FX with the help of morning/afternoon mist. Thanks for sharing.
 
Excuse me. What I see is a community of poor people that have a hard time coming by in their 'simple subsistence'. The issue is that these communities are ever more vulnerable in a globalizing context and often draw the short stick. This is something the photoseries might want to express as well. The way the pics are presented romantizes a supposed 'rustic nature' and suggests there is some 'original happiness' or 'satisfaction' that western societies have lost. Just my anthropologist's cup of tea. I like the pics though.
 
I like these a lot. To me they could have easily come from a 1930s National Geographic or something of that sort. While I note that you took the shots with a V4 35mm summicron, the rendering looks like that produced by older uncoated optics.
 
Wouter said:
Excuse me. What I see is a community of poor people that have a hard time coming by in their 'simple subsistence'. The issue is that these communities are ever more vulnerable in a globalizing context and often draw the short stick. This is something the photoseries might want to express as well. The way the pics are presented romantizes a supposed 'rustic nature' and suggests there is some 'original happiness' or 'satisfaction' that western societies have lost. Just my anthropologist's cup of tea. I like the pics though.
Click to expand...

I think that's a highly ethnocentric point of view... Who are we to say that the people in the photos are not actually happy or satisfied?

'simple subsistence' implies measurement against a standard of living. I've never been to North Vietnam (although I hope visit someday), so I would not know whether or not these photos represent simple subsistence or the norm.

I do agree that the photos are excellent.... I never would've guessed Fomapan. Great work!!!
 
Well the OP is Vietnamese and there's little dialect/language variation in Vietnam so I don't think he has much trouble ;) And you'll be surprised how many people can speak English up there as it has become a tourism hotspot in the recent years, although again concentrating mostly in towns rather than the rural areas.
 
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