I purchased these photographs at secondhand shops in Ho Chi Minh City during my extended stay in Vietnam in 2004. A shop owner told me that he would get suitcases of photos from people who cleaned out homes abandoned by others who had fled the country at the end of the war. These photographs revealed images of Vietnam I had never seen. They included a range of informal and formal family portraits, personal and candid snapshots, vacation photos, and artistic expressions. I also combed through family photo albums that other customers had picked through, marked by remnants of paper corners stuck on the album pages where the photographs had been removed.
For a month, I went through boxes of photographs at these shops and bought close to 1,000 images, dated between the 1940s and early 1970s.
These photographs have been waiting to be seen and appreciated. I am in the process of scanning and cataloging them. I will post them on Instagram as they are cataloged. I am excited to share these delightful, beautiful, and intriguing photographs with the world!
