Vietnam Uninterrupted - An accidental 20 year project
My first visit to Vietnam was in 2004.. the year after Cimigo Opened its doors.
Unwittingly I actually happened to have a drink in the bar below where their first office was. Of course, I didn’t know there was a little office above the bar. What tourist would?
Fast forward two years to 2006 and I moved to Vietnam for what I (ignorantly) thought would be a 6 month stint before heading off somewhere else.. hyper fast forward 18 more years and I am still here.. and so is Cimigo.
So it was almost serendipity when I met Richard Burrage, the founder of Cimigo at a whiskey tasting event in early 2023.
2023 was the 20th anniversary of Cimigo and Richard asked me if I would be interested in being a part of the creation of a book celebrating that milestone.
As a passionate archive digger (my own mainly) I was happily onboard.
However, as I soon realized, digging through 20 years of photographs from my ever expanding archive was no easy task. The biggest issues came up when I realize that some of my older hard drives from my first two years in Vietnam were severely corrupted. Mostly because when I started my photography career there weren’t many storage options I could afford, So I typically went with what I could afford and what was available.
Not the best method when selecting long term storage solutions.
However, once I was able to start recovering things we were off and running.
Aside from using older photographs I had made early on in my career we decided it would be a good idea to recreate some of the older ones as well as try and recreate as closely as possible the newer “today” versions to really highlight the massive differences in what Vietnam looks like today as compared to 20 years ago.
Some of these were easy. Like the shot in the banner above. Simply head to the same location. at approximately the same time (thank you digital camera metadata) and make a new shot.
Others were far more difficult. Like the “whats in the fridge” page.
I had no idea what Vietnamese people typically kept in their fridges in 2003. So there as a lot of asking and a guesswork as well as some trial and error but in the end we got there.
My favourite photos to make where the cityscapes. I love a good cityscape and thankfully that little obsession hasn’t changed in the pat 20 years. So I had some decent ones to recreate. You can see them below.
I was also fortunate enough to have kept most of my old AsiaLIFE magazine archives intact. So pulling from old shoots there made things a little easier.
If you are at all interested in seeing the full book online you can hop over to the Cimigo Website. And If you want to purchase your very own copy you can do so at that exact same link.
In the mean time I have composed a few of my favourite comparison images from the project and posted them below. I will also post them to my instagram page over the next few days.
I hope you enjoy the changes in the photos as much as I have enjoyed living them.
