Navigating The Mountains Of Northern Vietnam With Quinn Ryan Mattingly

“Leaving Hanoi on a Friday morning after a long week of work, even the incoming typhoon blowing into the region couldn’t hold back my excitement of returning to the mountains of North Vietnam, to photograph my encounters with the local people.

The ease of the phone and the steadfastness of the subjects made my life easy The rain chased us nearly all the way down the long straight highway that connects the city with the rural provinces that surround it. Once the landscape started to change, luckily so did the weather, and I was beginning to see the images I wanted to make. Not far into the countryside, our car passed by a set of men perched on a wooden fence, framed by rising hills in the back. After driving by the scene for a second or two, it occurred to me that this was exactly a perfect place to start, and I asked the driver to stop and turn about. I got out and approached the men with a smile and my best northern Vietnamese. They, of course, responded in kind, and I took out the phone and began to make a few shots. Though it usually takes me a second to warm up on the first shot of the day, the ease of the phone and the steadfastness of the subjects made my life easy, and within a few minutes I had a variety of images in the can.

The drive continues on and eventually, we reached the rural villages of Muong Hum and Y Ty, near the border of Vietnam and China. The next day saw me and the phone out exploring the surrounds, tromping through muddy rice terraces, following the action and light.”

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