Uphill Struggle, a photo from Quang Nam, South Central Coast

Photographer's Note

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This lady is about 70 years old. Subtract her youth years, she has been balancing her life this way for over half a century, non-stop. My co-workers saw this picture and they called it "Uphill Struggle". I like the name and stole it to post here to share with you. I took this a few hundred yards from the center of Hoi An Town where tourists traveled half the erath away to this community to... discover something old. Yes this is it, an old mean of transportation. As her life is a non-stop battle to survive, this woman has kept her fight and never left her battle front. She accepts her destiny exactly as described by Michel Tauriac, "The Vietnamese have a skillful art and method of hidding their misery behind a happy mask."

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kenmac, Flamboyant has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

TRASH (0) 2007-06-20 9:06

Your picture well represents a passage in Pham Duy's song "ME QUE", "Me que vat va tram chieu..."
I never read Michel Tauriac before, but your quote is good. I am going to look for his book soon.
Best regards,

kenmac (529) 2007-06-22 7:57

This is a wonderful capture Thanh..the hugeload the old lady is carrying fills the frame...making it look even bigger...well done. Also, the disappearing lines of the canal and the road balance the picture nicely. Your notes are good too. All round, a very good capture, displaying life in this wonderful little town...One of my favourites in Vietnam :-)
KMc

Flamboyant (0) 2007-06-23 13:22

It's painful to watch an old lady with that much load on her fragile body, even though in real life I saw this every single day. Maybe that's why we still need photographers to perform the art of photography, rather than seeing by naked eyes from a familiar point of view...
Thank you,