Basic HTML Version
timeout
65
making a photo collection about
Hanoi?
My home in Hanoi was in the
French quarter, on Tran Hung Dao
street, so it was ideal to go around on
foot. For many years, whenever I had
free time, I would just take my camera
and go out for a walk, without any par-
ticular destination in mind. And I would
try to capture with my camera whatever
would catch my attention. In doing this,
I had no intention to write a book. My
camera is not even fancy. I take pictures
with chemical film because I prefer the
resulting texture but my pictures are
not professional at all.
Then I started realising that there
were common themes in the thousands
of photographs I had accumulated over
the years; common, but quite independ-
ent of each other. And it was then that
the analogy with a pho recipe came to
my mind.
Pho
is the quintessential Hanoi-
an dish. A good
pho
is made from dozens
of ingredients but its taste is unique, to
the point of making it difficult to iden-
tify those ingredients. I realised that the
same was true of the city. Hanoians love
her but they would be hard pressed to
tell you why this is so. I thought that a
book about those “ingredients” (one per
chapter) would help readers think about
what makes the city so special.
However, I want to clarify that this
is not a book of photographs, even if it
has many photographs in it. There are
many professional photographers who
have done a much better job than me
at capturing Hanoi through images. In
my view, the text and the layout are
more important than the pictures. The
layout connects images in a thematic
way, so that each page becomes a self-
standing vignette about some aspect
of the city. The text builds on rigorous
research, but it also aims to convey
emotion. In fact, if there is one connect-
ing theme across the chapters, it is love.
Why did you name this collection Ha-
noi – Promenade?
There were a couple of reasons to
have the word promenade in the title
of the book. Perhaps the most obvi-
ous one is its French origin. Hanoi has
a strong and unique personality but it
also has clear French influences, from
the street layout to the treatment of
public spaces and its architecture. Using
a French word in the title was a way to
emphasise the mixture of cultural tradi-
tions that makes Hanoi so special.
A less obvious reason is that “prom-
enade” means a walk without a par-
ticular destination, wandering around
just for the pleasure of it. Some urban
specialists would argue that walkability
is a key trait of livable cities. Now, go-
ing around without any planned itiner-
ary also results in many surprises. One
jumps from one architectural style to
another, or from busy streets to quiet
space. The sequence of the chapters in
the book tries to reflect that random-
ness when walking through Hanoi.
Hanoi now is becoming modernised.
What do you think about this?
Modernisation is unavoidable and
should actually be welcomed as mod-
ern cities are the real engines of eco-
nomic growth and higher living stand-
ards. Hanoi cannot be a museum and
it would make no sense to treat it as,
say, Hoi An. But modernisation should
be compatible with the preservation of
the character of the city. By that, I am
not just referring to architectural land-
marks, such as the Opera House, but to
many lesser buildings and villas that in-
dividually do not qualify as architectural
masterpieces but taken together define
the personality of the city.
Equally important, and maybe
even more difficult, is to preserve the
social fabric of Hanoi. When looking at
some of the modern buildings in the
French quarter today it is easy to see
they brought comfort, even luxury, to
their occupants. But all the street life
around them has died, and very few of
the original residents have remained in
the area. This doesn’t need to be so. I am
convinced that there are better ways to
reconcile modernisation with the preser-
vation of what makes Hanoi so different
from other big cities and so lovable.
Do you expect to come back to Vi-
etnam again? And do you have any
more projects planned?
Sure! I don’t see how this on-and-
off relationship of more than 15 years
could come to an end. I always enjoy
being back. I hope that the relationship
will remain not just enjoyable but also
strong and meaningful.
THE INSIDER