In February 2016 I visited Vietnam. Having visted India and China in recent years I was eager to visit the country that was once called Indochina and that has unfortunately been subjected to almost continous conflicts for the best part of 1000 years. For centuries the Chinese oppressed Vietnam and then the French colonised it. After defeating the French, the Cold War proxy conflict, that was the American Vietnam War, wreaked havoc with what is in many ways a beautiful country. Now, after only a few years of opening up to the west, Vietnam is a thriving economy. Still a one party state it was fascinating to visit.
You can't go to Vietnam without visiting the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ha Long Bay. With about 2000 islands spread over 1500km2 if is a marvel of nature. However, as we found with the rest of our trip, flat grey skies and low temperatures did not make for exciting sunsets or sunkissed lazy days. I've made the best I could with this set of images, considering the conditions and the fact they were all taken from a moving vessel. I think the best treatment in these conditions is a black and white conversion with a heavy grain to present a filmic quality that seems to fit with the environment there. I've overgraded the skies to enhance the look and present highly contrasted images as an artisic choice.
I hope you enjoy them.
