Hmong Family

In 2025, I photographed a Hmong family living in the mountains of northern Vietnam. I had originally met one member of the family while travelling, but the project grew once I was invited into their home and began spending time with several generations of the family.

I wanted the photographs to feel like a record of their life together, rather than a series of disconnected portraits. I photographed four generations, including children, parents and grandparents, as well as the house, surrounding landscape and small details of everyday life. The area had recently experienced severe flooding, so some of the photographs also show the family rebuilding and continuing with daily life around the damage.

I planned the work loosely because I did not want to arrive with a fixed idea of what their lives should look like. Instead, I spent time with the family, watched how the day unfolded and photographed when it felt appropriate. The language barrier meant that trust, patience and non-verbal communication were especially important. I was careful not to photograph private moments simply because they appeared visually interesting.

When editing the project, I chose images that moved between individual portraits, relationships, domestic life and the wider environment. This helped the photographs tell a story about one family while also touching on cultural continuity, changing ways of life and the effects of extreme weather. I am still in contact with the family, which is important to me. The project taught me that the strongest stories often come from staying open to what people show you, rather than forcing the photographs to follow an idea decided in advance.