What makes Saigon’s 1964 self different from how it is today?
There’s not much that we know about the person behind the following set of photos, apart from his name, George Muccianti. However, in his snapshots Muccianti managed to encapsulate the essence of life in Saigon in the mid-1960s, when local shopfronts still bore cursive banners in English and áo dài-clad ladies still roamed local thoroughfares.
Through the shutterbug’s under-saturated, dreamy film tones, 1964 Saigon seem to straddle the line between foreign and familiar.
Have a stroll around Saigon in the 1960s below:
Saigon's scores of Buddhist temples and shrines.
The Saigon Zoo.
Saigon from a bird's-eye view.
The Saigon Notre Dame Basilica.
A view of the Thi Nghe Canal from Bong Bridge.
A restaurant with surrounding gardens.
Tourism posters on the wall of the airport.
The headquarter of the South Vietnamese government. Today, the site is occupied by the HCMC University of Social Sciences and Humanities.
The entrance of the cinema and the Passage Eden (Union Square today).
A woman rowing her boat on an unnamed Saigon canal.
A textile shop.
A demonstration of Saigon humor back then.
The photographer and friends taking a scenic tour of the city.
A restaurant on Nguyen Van Thinh Street (now Mac Thi Buoi).
A view of the Saigon Central Post Office.
The Gia Long Palace (now Ho Chi Minh Museum).
The fountain at Lam Son Square.
The Astor Hotel (at the corner of Dong Khoi and Mac Thi Buoi Streets today).
Saigon at night.
The old British Embassy.
[Photos via Flickr user manhhai]
