A photo exhibition by French photographer Sebastien Laval, entitledCommunities Through Time, has opened at L'Espace, the French culturalcentre in Hanoi.
The black-and-white photos portray the life andculture of people in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue, as well asCambodia's Angkor Wat and Luang Prabang in Laos. Laval's treatment offloating houses, flickering cooking fires, the innocent smiles of kids,the austere expression on the face of an ethnic man, or a tobacco pipebetween a woman's lips, captures the enigma that endures in this region.
Thephotos include portraits and depict both traditional customs andchanges in people's lives. Images in opposition, such as traditionalclothes and satellite dishes, old roofs and asphalt roads, reflect thechanges in the lives of the ethnic people. The images have no titles,allowing the viewer to freely think, feel and discover the characters,to "try to meet them, talk to them, look at them and understand them,"Laval said.
"The way I take photos is not to tell people that I am taking photos," Laval said. "I make no arrangement for the images."
Onemorning, Laval said he came to a Lao village and met a young girlcarrying her brother in front of her house. By the afternoon, she hadbecome acquainted with Laval, who was able to capture a photo of hersitting on sand with a radiant smile.
"If I hadn't come closer toher, I wouldn't have had that smile," he said. "I realised that peoplestill speak and have a mutual understanding even if they don't use thesame language."
Born in 1973, Laval discovered photography whenhe was given a camera by his father. He moved to Paris to work as anassistant for a photo studio in 1992 and subsequently began working as aprofessional in Poitiers.
Laval visited Vietnam for the firsttime in 1995 and has accumulated thousands of images of people in about20 Vietnamese ethnic groups, which he intends to publish in a book.
The current exhibition runs through February 11 at L'Espace, 24 Trang Tien Street, in Hanoi. /.
The black-and-white photos portray the life andculture of people in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue, as well asCambodia's Angkor Wat and Luang Prabang in Laos. Laval's treatment offloating houses, flickering cooking fires, the innocent smiles of kids,the austere expression on the face of an ethnic man, or a tobacco pipebetween a woman's lips, captures the enigma that endures in this region.
Thephotos include portraits and depict both traditional customs andchanges in people's lives. Images in opposition, such as traditionalclothes and satellite dishes, old roofs and asphalt roads, reflect thechanges in the lives of the ethnic people. The images have no titles,allowing the viewer to freely think, feel and discover the characters,to "try to meet them, talk to them, look at them and understand them,"Laval said.
"The way I take photos is not to tell people that I am taking photos," Laval said. "I make no arrangement for the images."
Onemorning, Laval said he came to a Lao village and met a young girlcarrying her brother in front of her house. By the afternoon, she hadbecome acquainted with Laval, who was able to capture a photo of hersitting on sand with a radiant smile.
"If I hadn't come closer toher, I wouldn't have had that smile," he said. "I realised that peoplestill speak and have a mutual understanding even if they don't use thesame language."
Born in 1973, Laval discovered photography whenhe was given a camera by his father. He moved to Paris to work as anassistant for a photo studio in 1992 and subsequently began working as aprofessional in Poitiers.
Laval visited Vietnam for the firsttime in 1995 and has accumulated thousands of images of people in about20 Vietnamese ethnic groups, which he intends to publish in a book.
The current exhibition runs through February 11 at L'Espace, 24 Trang Tien Street, in Hanoi. /.
