Description Vietnam is home to 54 minority ethnic groups, including the Black Hmong (to which the woman in this photograph belongs). I was sitting on the edge of a market when I saw her, considerably hunched over, as she slowly walked down the sidewalk. A asked a Vietnamese teenager if he would ask permission on my behalf to photograph her. She seemed to be mostly deaf and the interpreter didn't think she could hear him as he spoke. Yet she turned and allowed me to take several photos.
Of the 26,000 photographs I took between June and October 2007, only once did I give money to the subject of a photograph. When I finished with my shots and yelled thank you in Vietnamese, she smiled just as in this picture and then extended her open palm. I reached into my pocket and gave her what little change I had. Still smiling and still hunched over, she continued on her way down the sidewalk.
Joel Carillet, Johnson City, TN Member Since January 2008 Artist Statement
I'm a freelance photographer and writer whose work has appeared in a variety of magazines, newspapers, and anthologies, including Best Travel Writing 2011, the Christian Science Monitor, Kansas City Star. I keep a blog at www.reflectionsontheroad.com. Thanks, and enjoy the photos!