Life in Vietnam

Haunting images of Hà Nội go on display

Magical place: French photographer Sebastien Laval made all of these haunting images between the hours of 6pm and 6am, using a digital camera and no dedicated artificial light source.

HÀ NỘI – Unlike the common images of a bustling daytime Hà Nội, more peaceful nighttime images of the capital city by French photographer Sebastien Laval have been on display.

Laval, who has ties with Việt Nam that date back to the early 1990s, recently introduced a collection of 30 photos that illuminate Hà Nội and Huế at night in the Hanoi 18h/6h Hue 18h/6h exhibition.

Using a digital camera and no dedicated artificial light source, Laval produced all of his haunting images between the hours of 6pm and 6am. The images evoke a surreal perspective of otherwise ordinary settings – quiet alleys, lonely railways and shops with fluorescent lights.

For him, each photo conveys a memory of a specific location, space and moment.

The oldest photos in Laval’s collection date back to December 2007 when he first ventured onto the streets of Hà Nội with his camera. He discovered a new urban landscape, transformed by the absence of harsh, flooding daylight into a more magical place, alive with colours and textures that required the company of starlight and moonlight for resolution.

“By taking photos between 6pm and 6am, I want to show Hà Nội in a different way. Even if you are familiar with a place, at night, under a different sort of light, that location has a different atmosphere,” Laval said.

The photographer also determined the difference between the capital city and the former imperial city.

“While Hà Nội is always bustling and constantly moving, Huế is generally quiet and shy. This difference can be seen even at night in some of my photos.”

The Hanoi 18h/6h Hue 18h/6h photos are on display at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi until April 23; after which, they will travel to the MGallery La Residence Hue Hotel & Spa for display from April 29 to May 4.

Commenting on Laval’s photos, the general manager of the Hotel Metropole Hanoi said, “These images should inspire many of our guests to become more ambitious flâneur (city strollers) as they look out for the same sort of brilliant glimpses of this city.”

An exhibition visitor, Vũ Thuỷ, said, through the photos Laval had produced in Hà Nội and Huế, she could feel the bond between the photographer and these cities.

“I’ve read somewhere that a city, like a person, can create different connections for different tourists. Depending on each individual, that connection can be love, friendship or dislike. With Laval, I believe it is love,” she said.

Laval picked up photography in Paris as a young man, inspired by his grandfather. He made his first trip to Việt Nam in the early 1990s, documenting the lives of the ethnic minorities, and exhibited these works at the Huế Festival in 2008 and 2010, and then again in 2014.

For the upcoming Huế Festival starting from April 29, the French photographer will introduce his newly published bookHue: City of Crying Stones. The 124-page book comprises photos, poems and commentaries by Vietnamese scholars.

Philippe Bouler wrote the text for the book.

After the hotel exhibits, the photos will be presented at the Art Vietnam Gallery on 24 Lý Quốc Sư Street, Hà Nội. -- VNS