In the photos that I have taken for many years, Vietnamese family appears through the simplest things. There are no solemn rituals or elaborate scenes. It's just everyday life with labor, memories, care and silent love.
On the river in the early morning when it is still foggy, the couple pull nets to make a living together. On the porch, the fishermen couple mend torn nets together. In the kitchen, in the living room or outside the yard, small tasks are shared like the way Vietnamese people have gone through life's difficulties together for generations. There are loves that are not measured by roses or promises. They are as simple as cutting hair for relatives, helping each other put on a shirt, watching a TV show after dinner, or simply sitting next to each other in the peace of old age.
The photo set is also a story about memories. Old wedding photos are cherished in hands full of traces of time reminding us that each family carries its own history. In each wrinkle, each gray hair are so many years of love, sacrifice and attachment.
But family is not just the past. Family is also continuity. It is the mother's arms for her child. It is the protection of the previous generation for the next generation. It is values passed down from one person to another through simple actions every day.
Amidst the modern pace of life with many changes, these images remind us of something that seems very familiar but is sometimes easily forgotten. Family is not a perfect place, but a place where people are loved and belong.
And perhaps, the most precious thing about Vietnamese families is not only in special moments, but in ordinary days passed together. Because after all, as time passes, as youth recedes, what remains in everyone's memory is usually not the great achievements, but the image of loved ones always by their side, warm and loving in the years of life.
