Monday, December 16, 2013


 A different Vietnam through the lens of Austrian photographer
VietNamNet Bridge - Through the black and white photographs of the Austrian photographer Josef Höflehner, Vietnam shows up with a strange beauty.

Austrian photographer Josef Höflehner traveled around the world to take photos of many beautiful places. He went to Vietnam twice, in 2007 and 2012 and then he introduced a set of unusual black-and-white photos of Vietnam. 

Höflehner found a lot of different perspectives about the country and people of Vietnam and recorded them in black-and-white photos. The pictures are highly praised by the audience.

In the 2nd visit to Vietnam in April 2012, the photographer spent two weeks to visit the three regions in Vietnam and returned to the places he had visited five years ago. From Hanoi to Ha Long Bay, through Höflehner’s lens, the beautiful landscapes of Vietnam are both familiar and strange, because of the colors as well as the obsession that they give the viewer.

Below are the most beautiful photos posted on Höflehner’s site:


















Snowfall in tropical Vietnam (15th December 2013)





Heavy snowfall caused a traffic jam that extended nearly 5 km on the top of O Quy Ho mountain pass in Sa Pa town in the northern province of Lao Cai on Sunday morning.
Many roads and trees have been blanketed by 5 to 10cm thick snow.
Local people said the snow started falling at 9:30am on December 15 in the Xe mountain area at an altitude of 2,200m.
Nguyen Phuc Thanh, a forest official in charge of managing the Nui Xe mountain area, said that as of 9:30 am today the temperature in O Quy Ho fell to about 2 degree Celsius while the temperature in the Nui Xe Mt area was under 0 degree Celsius.
He added that the temperatures continued to fall as of 11:30am.

Romance of the northern winter
VietNamNet Bridge - Despite of the cold weather, Hanoi, Ha Giang, Moc Chau ... are very beautiful with yellow mustard flower fields, with roads covered by mist or little ethnic minority girls with pink cheeks because of the dry weather.
northern vietnam, winter, hanoi, dong van, romance
Moc Chau is always an attractive destination for photographers, especially in the winter. That's the time yellow mustard flowers bloom and apricot and plum trees yield flower-buds.
northern vietnam, winter, hanoi, dong van, romance
This photographic heaven is around 180 km away from Hanoi.
 northern vietnam, winter, hanoi, dong van, romance
Sapa is known as the city of fog. You should visit this place at Christmas to enjoy the characteristic cold of the Christmas.
 northern vietnam, winter, hanoi, dong van, romance
A little girl follows her mother to Sapa market to sell souvenirs.
 northern vietnam, winter, hanoi, dong van, romance
Go to Dong Van Market, Ha Giang; you can enjoy a variety of delicious food and buy some souvenirs.
 northern vietnam, winter, hanoi, dong van, romance
A lovely girl in Sung La, Dong Van district, Ha Giang province.
 northern vietnam, winter, hanoi, dong van, romance
A lagerstroemia tree with a few leaves left in the winter.
northern vietnam, winter, hanoi, dong van, romance
A well- dressed old man is walking from Hang Dao to Hang Gai Street, Hanoi.
northern vietnam, winter, hanoi, dong van, romance 
Relax some minutes on the Sword lakeside of the elderly.
northern vietnam, winter, hanoi, dong van, romance
A lettuce field in Hanoi suburbs.


(http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/vietnam-in-photos/91446/in-photos--romance-of-the-northern-winter.html)




The first color photos of Hanoi
VietNamNet Bridge – The Sword Lake, the Temple of Literature with primitive dirt roads or the girls in brassiere are very lively in the works by French photographer Leon Busy.
Photographer Leon Busy was assigned by the Albert Kahn Museum in France to go to Vietnam to capture the lives of the people in northern Vietnam (Tonkin) from 1914 to 1917. Sixty photos were selected from 1,500 works by Leon Busy for the exhibition "Hanoi, color 1914-1917" from December 9, 2013 through January 1, 2014 in Hanoi.

hanoi, first color photos, leon busy, french photographer
 This is a picture of the Hoan Kiem (Sword) Lake.
 hanoi, first color photos, leon busy, french photographer
 Through the photographs, the audience can see the normal life or the social classes at that time. The photos also express the belief and religion of Hanoi. In photo: The Temple of Literature.
 hanoi, first color photos, leon busy, french photographer
 Viceroy of Ton Kin Hoang Cao Khai's tomb, which is now ruins.
 hanoi, first color photos, leon busy, french photographer
 The photo of a paper making base in the Buoi village, Hanoi. The paper making trade in this village has disappeared.
 hanoi, first color photos, leon busy, french photographer
 Many photographers left valuable photos of Hanoi in the past, but these photos, which have never been published, are special because they are the first color photographs of ancient Hanoi. The color photography technique first appeared in 1903. In photo: Hang Thiec Street.
 hanoi, first color photos, leon busy, french photographer
 A rural market in Hanoi’s suburbs.
 hanoi, first color photos, leon busy, french photographer
 The street of colorful lanterns.
 hanoi, first color photos, leon busy, french photographer
"The nails of a Confucian scholar" photo shows that in the past, Vietnamese scholars did not do manual work.
 hanoi, first color photos, leon busy, french photographer
The first color photographs also demonstrated discrimination in Vietnam in the past. In the picture: A middle-class woman was cooking rice.
 hanoi, first color photos, leon busy, french photographer
 Hair buns, wearing expensive clothes, with servants standing behinds... are the image of women of the wealthier class. In this picture the three women were playing cards.
 hanoi, first color photos, leon busy, french photographer
Leon Busy also arranged scenes to photograph. Two girls sitting near the tank wore the traditional costume - white brassiere, black pants, light-colored belt and conical hat.
hanoi, first color photos, leon busy, french photographer
A farmer sitting amid the drying ground, showing the concept of wealth in the ancient agricultural life. The larger the drying ground is, the more rice the family has.
hanoi, first color photos, leon busy, french photographer 
Two rural women just picked up spinach, they wore four-panel dress, white brassiere and kerchief.
hanoi, first color photos, leon busy, french photographer
Wrestlers worship the village god before a match (in Xa La village, Ha Dong district).
(http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/vietnam-in-photos/91773/the-first-color-photos-of-hanoi.html)


Photos: Sa Pa terraced fields covered in snow
VietNamNet Bridge - To capture these stunning pictures of snow and ice in Sapa town and on the O Quy Ho Pass, the photographer had to walk 20km because snow was too thick and all kinds of vehicles could not move.


sapa, snow, o quy ho, terraces
 Snow covers the terraced fields in Sau Chua, Sa Pa.
 sapa, snow, o quy ho, terraces

Snow is tens of centimeters thick on the O Quy Ho Pass.
 sapa, snow, o quy ho, terraces

















sapa, snow, o quy ho, terraces
 sapa, snow, o quy ho, terraces
The Hoang Lien Son Mountains looks like mountains in the Europe.
 sapa, snow, o quy ho, terraces
Snowfall creates exceptional scenes but it severely affects the daily life of local people.
 sapa, snow, o quy ho, terraces
The terraced fields in Sau Chua, Sa Pa.
 sapa, snow, o quy ho, terraces
The entire valley is covered in snow.
 sapa, snow, o quy ho, terraces
The terraces in Sa Pa.
 sapa, snow, o quy ho, terraces
 sapa, snow, o quy ho, terraces
 sapa, snow, o quy ho, terraces
 sapa, snow, o quy ho, terraces
 Kids play with snow.
 sapa, snow, o quy ho, terraces
A lake in Sau Chua, Sapa.
sapa, snow, o quy ho, terraces
Two Hmong women in Sau Chua.
sapa, snow, o quy ho, terraces 
Cars are stuck because of snow. Photographers have to walk over 20km, passing the O Quy Ho Pass.

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베트남 여행 일지 - Travel diary of a Seoul student in Vietnam: http://vnkrphrasebook.blogspot.com