Vietnam: A Real Place

Breakfast in Hoi An.

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Image © 2000 Douglas Legg

I grew up in a fervently anti-war household where the Vietnam War was ever present. In my mind, Vietnam was a jungle. Or it was Saigon and the fierce battles of the Tet Offensive. It was a place in Life Magazine, and on The Huntley and Brinkley Report. To a large extent the war defined my childhood; it was my first cause and it formed the basis of my passion for social justice and political activism. The war ended when I was an adolescent and Vietnam was frozen in my mind, not as a real place, but as a representation of injustice.

Twelve years ago I read a book by Paul Theroux in which he said that Vietnam had the most beautiful beaches he had ever seen. The statement was jarring to me. Although the map of the country with its more than 2,000 miles of coastline was indelibly etched in my mind, it had never occurred to me that Vietnam had beaches. The realization reawakened a desire I had long had to see the country and to see it as a real place instead of the abstraction it had become for me.

I traveled in Vietnam for three weeks in February 1998. I visited Hanoi, Hue, Ho Chi Minh City and some places in between. Photographically, I was attracted to ordinary Vietnamese people, on the streets and boats and beaches where they live and work. Images of traditional Vietnamese culture caught my eye as well, especially when they were mixed with the trappings of western culture that bombard the people and their country every day.

I thought that evidence of the war would be everywhere, but I saw very little of it. Still, my visit was emotionally charged and the war was ever present in my heart and mind. The photographs that I made were my way of paying respect to the people and the place.

Published on 5/1/99

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