Julie Vola's "Recalling Hanoi" photo project
Anh-Duc -
(VOVworld) - Julie Vola’s connection with Vietnam began when her great grandfather went to Vietnam to build a rail line across the Long Bien Bridge at the beginning of the French colonial era in Vietnam. After graduating from a renowned French school of photography, Julie began to live the life of a professional photographer, travelling between Vietnam and France for photo projects on people and landscapes. At the time of her first arrival in Vietnam, Julie just wanted to know about her own family’s history and the places where they lived. Then she started getting curious about other people’s memories within the city. She says: “I started to build this project really quickly as I arrived in Hanoi, after 2 weeks. I started with my own stories and I took some photos on the streets on which my family had houses. Then I changed my mind and I started meeting people and taking photos of them and where their memories took place. It worked very well and it started to become ambitious. After a few weeks, I was like 'I think I’m going to stay in Hanoi.’”
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Natasha Kraevskaia is among the people of whom Julie Vola took photos for 'Recalling Hanoi' and here is her story:
"I arrived in Hanoi in 1983 with a Russian delegation in charge of opening the Poutchkine Institute. When I arrived…I could not go to restaurants, cafés, anywhere. On Christmas Day 1983 I met an avant-garde Vietnamese artist, my future husband. It was love at first sight. From this day I broke the law every time I went to his house. We got married in 1985. In 1990 my husband Tan wanted to open a gallery in our home, an alternative space where we could show experimental art. We renovated the house and everyone called it ‘Salon Natasha’…"
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‘Salon Natasha’ today. Natasha Kraevskaia shares another story about the fan of renowned painter Bui Xuan Phai:
“Bui Xuan Phai’s son attended the opening and said ‘It’s so hot in here and you have no fan’. We told him we had no money for a fan and he said ‘I will bring you my father’s fan’. He offered us the fan because when Bui Xuan Phai was poor, Tan gave him a pair of shoes- the last pair he ever wore. The son left and came back with the fan. Afterwards Tan told me he never gave him the shoes, another guy did. I tell this story often, I say ‘If you give someone something, it’s not always the same person who will pay you back’. We have kept the fan in the same exact spot and it still works today.”
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“Recalling Hanoi” quickly spread to Julie’s friends and was put on websites. In addition to the people she randomly meets on the street, other people started to contact her to tell their stories. She believes every person has a story to share:
“It’s not about great people, it’s about ordinary people. It’s not about the picturesque place of Hanoi, but the Hanoi itself. That can be a random street, like Ton Duc Thang Street. It may be not a beautiful street to photograph, but I took photo there, because someone told me about a memory on that street. Hanoi is like a person in this project, people’s memories are the life of Hanoi. The city’s history is not just made of the great history: it’s the people’s lives.”
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Vu Ha Anh is a famous Vietnamese top model. She shared with Julie Vola a story about her grandparents and chilhood memories on Van Phuc Street:
"My grandparents live on Van Phuc street, close to where I used to go to school…I remember afternoons I used to spend with my grandfather in his garden…My grandfather used to tell me stories about the trees, the flowers, the butterflies. He would teach me about the turtles and the fish. He gave me a sense of inspiration and imagination, the ability to feel the beauty around me and not be dictated to by materialistic values. I am not driven by fame but by passion.
At that time there was a small stream with trees around it. My cousin and I would explore the area and go on adventures…When they open Van Phuc street my grandfather was sad, he said that the road chased away the birds that used to come to eat the fruits in the trees in his garden."
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The Van Phuc Street crowded with cafes and houses today was once a surburban area of Hanoi.
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So far, Julie has interviewed 112 people. Every story was impressive, but Julie still remembers one particular moment:
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Mr Man tells a story about the war on Kham Thien street:
“Perhaps I’ve seen more men die than children born. At about 11 p.m., December 26, 1972, we heard that B52 bombers were coming so we ran quickly to the shelters. Thirty minutes later, bombs were raining down…It felt like it would never end…When I woke up, I (saw) my once familiar route to the market had been transformed into a path strewn with grief. Dead bodies covered with nylon lined the street…One day at the market we were standing in line to buy some rice. We saw an 8 year old girl. She timidly held out her rice register book to the sales clerk and said that all her family members had been killed in the bombardment. She begged the sales clerk not to erase their names from the book; she wanted them there forever. None of us could hold back our sorrow.”
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“The most powerful moment that I’ve had is when I interview Mr Man, who was very old, maybe he is 90s. He hardly walks and tells me a sad story about the war. After so many years, he was still moved about his experience and he starts to cry and then so does my assistant and I. We take him up from his bed to take a photo, because he really wants to go to the street for me taking his photo, although it’s very difficult for him."
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“Kham Thien is an old street, with the greatest number alleys in Ha Noi. Forty years on it still holds some of the most unforgettable and painful memories for me,” says Mr Man.
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Julie hopes to stay longer in Hanoi to capture more memories of this city and hopes to exhibit her work somewhere.
Anh-Duc