Trades of the Street

Trades of the Street, a documentary series on traditional Vietnamese marketplaces, studies how these spaces capture the Vietnamese life through people's desires, needs, and interconnectivity, and humanity. The traditional market exists as a microcosm for the multilayered flavors of Vietnamese culture and has been a constant presence in my practice which often revisit as a conceptual and physical site of inspiration. The instantaneous nature of photography allowed me to capture fleeting pockets of life that burst through narrow sidewalks and makeshift stalls full of sumptuous goods, crinkled money, and passing shadows. During my trips to the market, I was mesmerized by the vibrant energy that flowed through vendors and alleyways in the form of amiable chatters and growling motorbikes. I wandered the alleys for hours, just merely observing the market in all its ebb and flow, and realized a rhythm one can get used to, a certain predictability in chaos that is only achievable after a period of observation and familiarity.