Vietnam - journey of memories

The newly released bilingual book Vietnam - A journey of memories (Vietnam - Un voyage mémoriel) by Dr. Hoang Thi Hong Ha, ethnologist, co-authored with French artist Dominique de Miscault, is aimed at French and Vietnamese readers to exchange cultures and spread the value of historical memories.

Every time I come to Vietnam I feel like I'm coming home.

The book is the result of more than 30 years of experience and reflection on Vietnam through the lens and feelings of a Western artist, combined with commentary and cultural research from a Vietnamese perspective.

"I was not born in Vietnam. But every time I come here, I feel like I am back." This is the opening sentence of a book by French photographer Dominique de Miscault, who has spent more than three decades in Vietnam, quietly capturing the everyday beauty of a country in transition after war and long years of being besieged by the US embargo.

When Dominique first set foot in Hanoi in 1992, he did not bring any big projects or specific plans, just a clear feeling: Vietnam was waiting for him.

Through her lens, Vietnam appears not as a tourist destination or a majestic land but as a space of memory: simple, quiet and profound.

Vietnam - Journey of Memories does not follow a plot or chronological order. Each photo is a slice of memory, a piece of emotion about streets, faces, sitting postures, hands, light... seemingly ordinary but carrying a part of the soul of Vietnam.

Dominique's photos are not staged or embellished. She does not take pictures to tell a story, but to remember a Vietnam that is close, quiet, kind, and resilient.

The book’s highlight is the resonance between images and words. Dr. Hoang Thi Hong Ha, a Vietnamese cultural researcher living in France, compiled the commentary in Vietnamese. The commentary does not interpret or explain, but resonates with the photos, as if the fragments of memories are whispering in the Vietnamese language.