Looking Into the Past

December 28, 2012 1:30 PM

Vietnam - Looking Into the Past. Vietnamese photographer Khánh Hmoong takes pictures of Vietnamese landscapes and buildings, then superimposes a photograph from the past over the modern day setting. His work is similar to FILMography (previously on MeFi), Russian photographer Sergey Larenkov's World War II gallery: Link to the Past, and Ben Heine's Pencil Versus Camera. Via
posted by zarq (3 comments total)

Considering all the turmoil Vietnam endured, especially in the '50s and '60s, it's surprising how few of those shots show the destruction of war.
posted by Longtime Listener at 1:55 PM on December 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

I think that he deliberately chose to show settings that are still comparable, i.e. mostly historical buildings and landmarks from the imperial (temples, palaces) or colonial (markets, hotels, churches, train stations) eras that have survived the wars. For instance, his images of the Imperial City of Huế only show the few remaining standing structures, while most of the place was razed to the ground in 1968 (10 buildings are still there, they were 160 before 1968). It's pretty impressive in any case. Economic growth is remodelling Vietnam at a very fast pace and it only takes a couple of years for entire districts to become unrecognizable.
posted by elgilito at 4:34 PM on December 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

Vietnam is a strange and beautiful country.
posted by sonic meat machine at 6:32 PM on December 28, 2012