VIETNAM WINTER (2016): HANOI- CITY IN TRANSITION

Most of the photographs in this section were made in Nghĩa Tân (Cầu Giấy District), a neighborhood close to the university where I was leading photography workshops while on a Fulbright Specialist Grant. Twenty years ago the area was filled with rice paddies. Today there are eight-lane boulevards overflowing with motorcyclists. Once a low, dense and organic city, Hanoi is now engaged in a steady-paced verticalisation process, especially in the new urbanized areas flourishing at their edges (khu đô thị mới). But beyond iconic new urban projects and glittering business districts, the everyday city production still takes place in the interior of their specific urban pattern, namely their alleyway neighbourhoods.