Saigon is changing so quickly that people who were born here can feel as if they are returning to a foreign land after years away.
Hon Hoang, the Los Angeles-based street photographer, recently visited his hometown of Saigon for the first time in 11 years.
In an essay posted on Enflight Design, Hoang shared his feeling of otherness while in the city: "Finding the right words buried under two and a half decades of assimilation proved to be difficult. Perhaps it was my accent, my child-like vocabulary, or maybe everything about me was foreign to this place I thought of as home."
The below set of photos shared with Saigoneer illuminates Hoang's effort to capture aspects of the booming metropolis that still felt the same to him, but looked much different at the same time: "Its inhabitants working day by day, to live, to provide for the future. Street vendors beginning their work before the sun wakes or never having stopped to begin with. Construction workers laboring under a feverish heat, finding solace in the brief moments of wind and rain. Citizens working well into old age, doing work meant for much younger bodies."
His takeaway at the end of the trip was ultimately positive: "I see a country with hope, hope for a future that’s better than what most experienced in the past. The hardships, turmoil, and labor that bled into the soil that grows bounty. It’s a country in search of identity and ownership, both of which have been unknown."
See Saigon through Hoang's eyes below:
