For many poor people in Ho Chi Minh City, having their portraits taken by volunteer photographers of the Help Portrait programme is a dream comes true.
Photo by Thanh Nien
This was just the second time the programme had been held in Vietnam, with the collaboration of the HCMC Youth Union, the Red Cross of District 1, the Vietnamese Help Portrait Organisation, and Canon.More than 70 photographers and 30 volunteers took part and 2,500 portraits were taken.
Some hadn’t taken any photo of themselves for decades. Some had to walk from very far to receive a picture bearing their own smiles.
Nguyen Van Quang from Tan Phu District woke up very earlier that morning with well-ironed clothes and pedaled to the site of the event.
“I read on newspaper that they provide free photograph service,” he said. “So I just want to take some to send to my relatives back home,” said To Quang, who left his home town in Ninh Binh to seek a living in HCMC decades ago, his hometown is just a blurred picture inside his shattered memory.
Spouseless and childless, he lives on a small amount of money provided by relatives. To him, a portrait is a postcard to send back home.
“Are we still taking photos?” asked another customer, a smiling old woman named Nam from Hau Giang Province. “I’m afraid I’m late because I’ve walked all the way here from the Western Bus Station.”
Like Quang, Nam hadn’t had any portrait in her whole life. Her family in the countryside was very poor so she decided to come to HCMC. She now lives in a run-down place and tries to save every penny by selling lottery tickets.
A girl named Le Thi Bong didn’t have her portrait taken very often either. It was only her second time somebody took a picture of her.
Before coming to the event, Bong had been helping her mother sell beverages in parks in the morning.
As one of the youngest customers, she was showered with attention. The volunteers helped her to comb her burnt hair and tidy up her shirt and her trousers cuffs.
Bong was so happy she spent the whole lunchtime looking at her beautiful portraits without eating anything.
“The last time I had a photo was at the zoo. But it was a long time ago,” she said.
Out of the thousands of pictures, there is a very special one of the Vovinam athlete Lam Dong Vuong who won a gold medal at SEAGames 26.
Wearing his uniform, holding the SEA Games mascot and trophy and a shiny medal, Lam just couldn’t hide his happiness.
“When I won the medal in Indonesia, I didn’t take any picture for myself,” he said. “So when I heard of this programme I rushed here to re-capture my lifelong moment.”
