Saigon Unseen exhibition

A different audience

Last summer, after spending the past few years busy running photography tours around Saigon, I felt the need to take my work beyond the small Instagram grid and onto actual walls in the city.

Most of the time, I guide tourists and first-time visitors through Saigon with their cameras, helping them discover the city through their own lens. But this time was different. The people visiting the exhibition would mostly be expats who had already been living here for years, or locals born and raised in Ho Chi Minh City. The challenge was no longer to introduce the city, but to show them a side of it they might not have noticed before - and hopefully surprise them with unexpected scenes, light, and moments hidden within the everyday chaos of Saigon.

A change of perspective

I think my relationship with photography has also changed a lot over the years. When I first arrived in Vietnam in 2014, photography slowly became a way for me to connect with the city and the people around me. The streets of Saigon felt like a playground where I could experiment, wander, and slowly make sense of this new environment.

Now, this city feels like home, and my approach has become much more instinctive. It’s less about chasing decisive moments and more about translating an atmosphere - building a body of work that captures what it feels like to live in Ho Chi Minh City at this particular moment in time.

Exhibitions as a way to learn and grow

Since my first exhibition back in 2020, I’ve always seen exhibitions as an opportunity to experiment and try new things. This time, I wanted to push the project a bit further by creating a small photobook for the exhibition, along with a series of postcards and stickers.

Seeing the work printed and hanging on walls always feels a little vulnerable. Everyone connects to images differently, and there’s always this hope that people will not only see the photographs, but also feel the atmosphere, emotions, and vision behind them.

Another step to my ongoing documentation of Saigon

Looking back, Saigon Unseen doesn’t feel like an ending, but more like another step in the way I’ve been photographing this city over the years. Saigon still catches me off guard all the time, and I honestly hope it never stops.

I still walk the streets almost every day with a camera, still curious to see what the city might reveal depending on the light, the mood, or simply the moment. Maybe that’s what this whole project is really about in the end. Just continuing to look a little closer.