Celebrating Tet in the Mekong

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, Feb. 13 -- There is an electricity in the air here, an excitement that seems to light up the entire Mekong Delta.

These are the days leading up to Tet, the celebration of the Lunar New Year. The next year will be the year of the Tiger, and I am here photographing the activities leading up to the holiday and the traditions that come with turning the calendar to the New Year. It's part of my ongoing photo project on Vietnam, one that I started with my first shooting trip here five years ago.

Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) was a frenzy of activity this morning, as residents did their final shopping, scooping up fish, rice and flowers from the local markets. All this shopping wound-up by noon as residents piled their purchases on their motorbikes and headed home for an evening of eating, drinking and celebrating. Some will go to a temple to pray. Others are looking forward to some gaming and fireworks.

My week started in the flower plantations east of Ho Chi Minh City with my Vietnamese photographer friend Long Ly. We were generously welcomed onto the plantation by the ever-friendly Vietnamese farm hands, inviting us to photograph them carrying bushes of bright yellow, orange and red flowers to nearby trucks. The trucks distribute the flowers throughout the delta.

I was so excited to begin photographing that I left my hat in the car and failed to cover myself with sunscreen. The sun was hotter than a steaming slice of Saturday night sin. And now, I have pinky sunburn and peeling skin to show for it. But I am also getting some great images.

From the plantation, we head further east to Can Tho. From this Mekong commercial center, we photographed about four floating markets, as well as a group of fishermen working their nets in the low-tide surf on the southern tip of the delta near a town called Bac Lieu.

The markets, which typically get started at sunrise, are particularly colorful in advance of Tet. Farmers bring their red, green and yellow produce to the markets and sell boat-to-boat to local wholesalers. The markets are especially busy and the yellow flowers and blooming bonzai trees provide an additional splash of color.

At each market, we find our way along the shoreline, often skirting across bamboo and wood bridges that tenuously connect waterfront shanty. Local residents are usually welcoming, allowing us to use their back porches as a perch to photograph the action. This provides an additional level of interest, as families go about their daily chores, cleaning vegetables, cooking and sewing.

Long is always a pleasure to work with. He knows exactly where to find these special locations and how to talk our way into advantageous shooting positions. He also is a great photographer, and I find that his presence and hard work keep me from getting lazy and push me to do my best work.

During part of our time, Long has invited some photographer friends of his own to join us. These shooters are a mix of professional and amateur and live in Ho Chi Minh City and in the Mekong. I am at first a little taken aback, as I am working on a book and do not want to share my vantage point with others. But the truth is that the Mekong's floating markets are vast, no one has a monopoly here and it is up to an individual photographer to develop a unique point of view.

I am reminded the universe is abundant, and that by being generous I will be rewarded. And indeed, I am. Long's invitation to his friends is itself an act of generosity and they embrace me as one of the group. I am given a front-row seat to see some of the celebrations and observances of friends and families during Tet. And, one of the professional photographers takes us to the shore where we have a unique opportunity to photograph the group of fishermen casting their nets into the setting sun.

After an afternoon of photographing the fishermen, one of the local photographers takes us to a restaurant that I am told is famous for its cooked rat. I feel like fate has finally caught up with me. I sense that maybe the group has some sort of initiation in mind for the western visitor. I am assured that these rats are not like the big, dirty city critters that feast on rotting waste. These are rice field rats and have been treated to a clean diet of fresh rice, making them desirable for consumption.

Food soon begins arriving at the table. There are fried frogs legs, eel in a green vegetable that looks like spinach or kale and a vegetable soup. Where is the rat, I ask. Oh, one of the photographers who speaks English explains, the waiter said they are out of rat tonight.

What a pity.

The next morning, we photograph another floating market in Soc Trang, which is Long's hometown. After a morning of shooting, the other photographers head home and Long takes me to his uncle's home. It is on a rural plot of land and looks a little like a small plantation. There are two very large fish ponds and a variety of trees, some bearing fresh fruit.

As is the custom in the Mekong, the grave sites of deceased family members are in the backyard. While sharing some fruit with Long's three uncles -- two are visiting from the United States -- he explains that one of the Tet customs is for family to gather around the grave sites, light incense, place offerings of fruit and pray.

We move to the backyard and Long lights some incense and places it at the headstones of his father and mother. Outside a neighbor's home, I can see family members congregating around headstones in their backyard, too. As I watch Long, I am suddenly reminded of my grandmother's tears the first Christmas after my grandfather died. It seemed at this moment that the Vietnamese have a better way for recognizing this grief, as their ritual is intended to include past family in the celebration of life and to ask the deceased to bring them good luck during the next year.

After some time at the graves, we all move to a covered outdoor patio and assemble around a big table for dinner.

There is fried sticky rice, dried fish and turtle roasted in clay pots. There also is lots of Heineken beer poured over large chunks of ice in mugs. One of Long's uncles presides at the head of the table, leading round after round of frequent toasts that are made throughout the dinner.

At the end of the evening, Long and I head back to Can Tho. We want to get an early start the next morning so that Long can make the 10-hour journey back to his home in DaLat in time to celebrate the New Year with his own family.

These customs may seem very different from our Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year celebrations in the West. But they actually are all based in some common humanity. All seem to be based around love for family and friends, hope for the future and expressions of faith. They are rituals and celebrations that remind of us the important things in life and that in the end we are more alike than we are different.

Save the Dates for Open Studios

Save the dates: Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 24-25.

That is the weekend for this fall’s Open Studios – the Washington, D.C., art event that allows art lovers to hop from one artist’s studio to another. Art patrons get a chance to meet the artists and see where they create their work.

Open Studios, which is organized by Mid City Artists, has gained incredible popularity over the years and now is regarded as one of the city’s premiere art events. The MCA artists include many accomplished painters, sculptors, photographers and others who offer a wide variety of work across a range of prices.

Check out the MCA website for more info and a map with all the Open Studios: www.midcityartists.com.

The other big news: I will be showing my work during this Open Studios, and will available prints from many of my latest colorful images from Vietnam. If you live in the Washington area, please accept my invitation to drop by my studio/loft and see the latest from my ongoing Vietnam project.

Many visitors make a day of Open Studios and take a break for brunch at one of the many restaurants on U Street or in the Logan and Dupont Circle areas. I hope you make plans to participate and include a stop at my studio as part of your itinerary.

My studio will be open both Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 5 p.m. You can get an advance look at my work at: www.RobertDodge.com.

Introducing 42 New Vietnam Images

I am happy to report to you that I have posted 42 new Vietnam images on my website. These are images that I shot during my most-recent trip in May of this year, as well as a few images from the trip in 2008 before I had my tumble from a mountain rice paddy and busted up my knee.

For the last three-and-a-half months, I have spent much of my time doing the Photoshop editing that turns raw images out of the camera into fine art prints. The process is intense, takes hours for each image and is a lonesome pursuit for someone like me who prefers a working environment full of chattering people. After all, I worked for more than 30 years in newspaper newsrooms.

You can find these latest images on my website at www.RobertDodge.com. Once there, just click on “Latest Work.” As a reminder, please subscribe to this blog for new updates: I promise not to drown you in shameless self promotion and will send you updates only when there is something important to say.

If you live in the Washington DC area, please mark your calendars for Oct. 24-25, Open Studios weekend – the semi-annual walking art tour where patrons hop from one studio to another to view art in the artists’ studios. I am using this fall’s Open Studios to show these new images for the first time. I will be posting more news about Open Studios soon.

Shameless Promotion: All my images are available as prints and are priced to be friendly to entry-level collectors. Most images are available in two sizes, 13x19 for $190, and 17x22 for $300. Please note that I use a graduated price structure, and prints become more expensive as an edition sells and fewer prints are available.

'Are These Images Enhanced?'

As I worked through these images, I was reminded of some of the folks who come to look at my work during Open Studios. Frequently, visitors will admire the rich, saturated colors and dramatic lighting in the Vietnam portfolio and then ask, “Are these enhanced?”

I am always a bit put off by the question, because there is an implicit suggestion that the images are somehow fake, that I have been dishonest and used the magic of digital imaging to deceive the viewer. While I find the question annoying, I know that I should take it as an opportunity to explain my own technique and at the same time use it as a teaching moment to educate my guests about the fine art photographic process.

To start, photographers have manipulated their images almost since there was light and film. It starts in the camera with choices about exposure, depth of field and composition. When shooting with film, the interpretation also includes choices about film type and the chemistry used to develop the film and prints. And finally, in the traditional darkroom, photographers employ a vast variety of techniques to bring out wonderful tones, deep blacks, bright highlights, textures and other attributes that create deeply emotional, luminescent and memorable prints.

Ansel Adams, the famous landscape photographer, once said that the film negative is simply the sheet music. It is in the print where the symphony plays – a production directed by the photographer, working in the darkroom. Adams was among the first to use the technology of his day to produce the rich and luminescent landscapes that made him so famous.

Today, everything has changed and not much has changed at all.

As many fine art photographers have moved to digital technology, many of the choices are similar but have moved to the computer. When images from high-resolution digital cameras are paired with a wide range of software, printer and paper choices, photographers are armed with a breathtaking range of techniques and options to express their vision in the final print. In fact, these digital tools have provided photographers with more tools and options than they have ever had before.

So, their vision, and the choices they make to get there, are not much different than those of painters who expresses their vision of a scene with oils, acrylics and water colors. Did anyone ever ask Claude Monet if his impressionist paintings were enhanced?

To help illustrate my own process, I have included two images here. One shows the image just as it came out of the camera – raw data with no editing or interpretation of any kind. The other is the finished image, showing what I saw and felt as I stood on this mountainside in the far north of Vietnam. To me, the final print is an accurate representation of what I experienced. As I stood there, I could smell the rain in the darkened clouds rolling towards me. I could hear the wind blowing through the leaves of the bamboo trees below, and I could see the flicker of the luminescent lighter green in the top of the trees as they were illuminated by a little sun poking through the clouds above. I could also hear a little bell on the collar of the dog on the path below as it scurried quickly from one house to another before the next rain. And in the distance, from down in the valley below and out of sight, there were the voices of laborers working the orange dirt fields of crops.

I come from a tradition of journalism, where a high value is placed on accuracy and integrity in storytelling. While I was never a photojournalist, those values still guide me when I am working on my photography. While I use my tools to push an image to be the best it can be, I am also mindful of not tricking the viewer. If I have used tools that some might think of as “special effects,” then I feel compelled to disclose that as part of a candid and forthcoming discussion about process.

And so, yes, in the interest of full disclosure, these images all have been enhanced. And proudly so!

Peter Arnett in Saigon

I found this video report by former war correspondent Peter Arnett very interesting. Arnett reports on the changes in Vietnam since the days when he was there during the war. To be sure, the downturn in the economy has hurt, most notably in tourism. But there are signs in both Saigon and Hanoi, especially in real estate development, of a country that is quickly developing and creating new wealth.

Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z15NKyy4cY

Robert

Trip Ends, Back in Washington

Friends and Fans:

After shooting more than 2,000 images and eating nearly as many spring rolls, I have returned to Washington DC.

Thanks to all of you who have followed my adventure here on my blog. It was a wonderful trip full of interesting and thought-provoking people and places. I appreciate all of you who tuned into the blog and those who took time to send emails.

The image above was taken of me by my photographer friend Long Ly, who accompanied me on my journey through far North Vietnam. We were in Duong Lam village in Soy Tay Province near Hanoi when he caught me angling for an image. 

In the months ahead, I will be spending a lot of time editing and processing the images. It is a time-consuming process in which the old techniques of the darkroom are now done on a computer in Photoshop. But it is a labor of love. And I will be looking forward to sharing the results with you.

I will be sending out updates when I have added new images to my website at www.robertdodge.com. And I will be sure to post other updates about my work here on this blog.

Thanks again for tagging along! 

-- Robert 

The Nature of Work and Happiness

THURSDAY-FRIDAY, MAY 14-15

"The purpose of our lives is happiness" -- the Dalai Lama.

Traveling outside the United States, especially in less developed countries, always makes me wonder about what it takes to be happy. I so often notice people in other countries who work so much harder than people in my country for a piece of fish or bread. And yet, these people often seem very happy, in fact, happier than many people I know at home.

As I finish up my photo shooting trip in Vietnam with a couple of days in Saigon, the question is on my mind again. Truly, we are more comfortable in the United States and live easier lives and enjoy one of the highest standards of living in the world. But are we really happier than those with less?

And, if the purpose of our lives is happiness, are we on the right path?

Our emphasis on careers, advancement and making more money to buy more stuff has not made us a happier people. But we have so vigorously pursued these values that we borrowed money we did not have to buy bigger homes and more consumer goods. And look where we've ended up -- in a punishing recession. You will find few people who are more ardent free-market capitalists than I. But a good capitalist would be the first to tell you that you cannot sustain a lifestyle that is built upon borrowed money.

Many philosophers have waxed more eloquently than I can about the nature of work and happiness and how to find it. So, I will not try.

But I do like the prescription of the Dalai Lama: He says happiness can be found in undertaking acts designed to make others better off, an idea common in the doctrine of many faiths, not just Buddhism. He adds that by following that guiding principle, things like career, job, family and other parts of life would become increasingly indistinguishable.

With careful distinctions between work, family and other parts of our lives, we Americans unfortunately live far from that definition of bliss.

To be certain, many Americans live happy lives, pursuing work they love. I was fortunate to spend 30 years doing that in newspaper journalism. And now, I have my photography to bring that same joy to my life. But far too many people fail to find that kind of calling and live lives of quiet desperation.  

So, of course, when I was on the far northern frontier of Vietnam, I had to wonder if the local people I met there were further along the path to happiness. As I stood on the side of a mountain, I could see a young man and woman doing the backbreaking work of preparing a rice paddy for planting, the clunking of wood bells on buffalo came from further down in the valley and from out-of-sight I could hear children playing during school recess.

These simultaneous acts seemed to have such harmony and their sounds a simple symphony of life that has gone on for centuries.

Indeed, our values about the nature of work and wealth are very different. But there are many common values in family, friends and health, as well as faith, patriotism and wanting to build a better future. In the end, I find it useful to look at them looking back on us. It is a new way to see ourselves as a people and individuals and ask the profound questions about whether we are on the path we want to be.

I hope my images here have helped introduce you to these people and their country and that you can also grow from that experience.

Chillin' In Nha Trang

MONDAY-WEDNESDAY, MAY 11-13, 2009

My time in Nha Trang, a beautiful beach town on Vietnam's central coast, was mostly supposed to be about relaxing and enjoying some time around the beach and pool. And that is why I took Monday off. I did not shoot a single photo.

But Tuesday, it was back to work at 5 a.m. 

Not long after leaving my hotel in the pre-dawn light, I am greeted with some awesome views of fishing boats against the remaining clouds from the previous night's thunderstorms that are now lighted by the early morning sun. Nha Trang draws its beauty from the blue ocean waters, islands and mountains that drop off at the water's edge. The principal industries here are tourism, fishing, salt-making and boat building.

I make my way to Luong Son Port, which is located north of Nha Trang on the coast. Fishing boats have come in from a night of work and are offloading a plentiful catch of fish, shrimp, crab and eels to eager wholesalers and individual peddlers who are frantic to bargain for the best price and plan to sell in the city's markets and hotels. The bedlam that ensues has the frenetic pace of commodity market trading, except these negotiations are in Vietnamese.

I throw out my own net and collect a good catch.

The scene is colorful and interesting, as well as being full of life. It is a scene that takes place in hundreds, if not thousands, of sea ports along Vietnam's coast everyday. But this one is unfolding before my camera and images are rich with the color and drama of this country's daily life.

After filling my camera with images, I move onto the local salt fields. Usually, these are flooded with sea water and left the evaporate and then the salt is collected. This day, however, rain water has flooded the fields and only a few workers are on hand to shovel salt into large 50-pound bags. I take some shots and mix it up with some of the ladies in conical hats, promising to send one a rich American movie star husband.

My final stop of the day is a boat-making and repair yard where about 30 large fishing boats are in dry dock, meaning they have been propped up on tree stumps, scrap wood beams and other materials. The scene makes for some fun images, as workers remove and replace wood planks in the hulls of some boats, seal between the planks for leaks, repaint the boats and fit them with new hardware, such as propellers, rudders and updated communications and navigations equipment.

It is blistering hot -- time to return to the hotel, get something cold to drink and hang out at the pool.