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An odyssey from the North to the South of Vietnam, it started in the Northern Mountains of Sa Pa, passed through “mini-Paris” Dalat, continued down to Rach Gia in the Mekong Delta and then returned to end at the mythological birth place of Vietnam: Phu Tho. While documenting NGO Crossing Borders(link to video), I made a parallel journey through Vietnamese culture, feeling more like an anthropologist than a photographer in my discovery of cultural differences. Recurring themes such as the importance of water, respect for the elderly, traditions of modesty, customs of sharing with generosity wove themselves in every strata of society with inexorable grace.

Vietnam still holds pockets of ethnic minorities – 54 different ethnic minorities to be exact: The Muong, K'ho, H’mong, Ede, Chill, Maa, Ba Na, Chinh, and Jarai are just a few of the tribes found in the highlands. One that I visited were the H’mong, located in the Northern mountains near the town of Sa Pa. Unfortunately, the town is also becoming overrun with international tourists - rapidly changing the economic focus of the H’mong and eroding their traditional terracing agriculture. Other problems such as a burgeoning rate of AIDS infections in the South, and lingering effects of Agent Orange are present. It is a culture, a society, and a government in flux, meeting the capitalist consumerist West head-on while still trying to preserve their many traditions.

Documentary Photographs by Isabelle Carbonell