Photo book on Vietnam’s capital to join Frankfurt fair

The Goethe-Institute Hanoi has extended an invitation to all people to contribute their photographs to the publication of a photo book on the capital of Hanoi.

Apartments - Hanoi (Photo: Amy Thibodeau/Goethe Institute)
Apartments - Hanoi (Photo: Amy Thibodeau/Goethe Institute)

The deadline for photo submissions will be March 31. The book will be introduced at the 2018 Frankfurt Book Fair, Germany, in October.

It will be both in English and Vietnamese and includes six chapters: ‘Hanoi from above’, ‘Change over Time’ (timeline photos from the past 25 years), ‘Architecture & Housing’, ‘People of the City’, ‘Urban Transport’ and ‘Soul of the City’.

The contributions will mainly apply to chapter six, reflecting traditions, contemporary culture and the identity of Vietnam’s capital city.

In addition to highlighting the inner city, the photos should also convey the emerging new lifestyles, for example at the western parts of Hanoi, which became an administrative part of the city just ten years ago as well as traditional trade villages and the long-term connection between the city and the surrounding countryside.

Hanoi’s increasing street-art may also be worth documenting.

A photo exhibition, entitled ‘My Hanoi’, with photos selected for the ‘Soul of the city’ chapter, will also be held in October.

The book’s editor and the exhibition’s curator is Michael Waibel - an urban geographer and project leader at the University of Hamburg, Germany.

Over the past 20 years he has spent time in Vietnam and observed with admiration the people and country as it further develops.