Arts

Little Paris in Hanoi

Thinking that modern European life-style does not create Hanoi’s charm but the old heritage does, Matthias Meyer has given viewers a new and interesting insight into Hanoi and Paris through photos showcased at the “Disorientation – A Little Paris in Hanoi” exhibition. The exhibition took place at the Goethe Institute (56-58 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street) in Hanoi.
As a German photographer who has resided in Hanoi since 2011, Matthias Meyer said that on moving to Hanoi he decided to get connected with the city and its inhabitants through photography. He had a couple of ideas in mind about photography projects to depict Hanoi.

Exhibits include 20 photos taken by Matthias Meyer since 2011 using a series of double exposures to connect the spirits of Hanoi and Paris based on a combination of negative space, color, and contrast. In most of the photos, images of Hanoi and Paris superimpose on each other to create mosaic pictures but no disparity between two different cultures.



Photographer Matthias Meyer introduces the content of the exhibition “Disorientation – A Little Paris in Hanoi”.


The exhibition attracts much attention from domestic and foreign art lovers.


Matthias Meyer introduces the audience to his photographs. 


Matthias Meyer talks with the audience at the exhibition.


Matthias Meyer shares his ideas on photography.

Monochrome pictures using contrasting shades of grey including black and white made the architecture of Hanoi and Paris, which may be rather muddled, harmoniously entangled with each other. The subjects of the photos may be the Grand Opera House, the Eiffel Tower and Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris but sometimes they are just a corner of Hanoi or part of the Sword Lake.

Photos at the exhibition reflect the work and lives of Hanoians with images of women carrying twin baskets suspended from shoulder poles, girls wearing conical hats or cyclo riders nearby French  architecture scattered around the city.

Admiring those photos, an audience can discover and experience every corner of and slice of a different cultural life and architecture in Hanoi and Paris which are inter-mingled in each photo.

Expressing his love to Hanoi, Matthias Meyer said that his exhibition “Disorientation – A Little Paris in Hanoi” is a way to get his own view of Hanoi in a time that modernisation is spreading out to every corner of the city with the interaction of different cultures, causing the old Hanoi to gradually vanish.


Some photographs displayed at the exhibition:


“Balloon seller”.


“Waiting for customers”.


“Skating”. 


“Along the river”.


“New and old”.


“Lot of Eiffel”.


“Fountain relax”.


“Pho (street) and Pho (Vietnamese traditional noodles)”.


“Bridges”.


“The race”.


“Cleaning up”.


“Rushing to the Opera”.


“From above”.

Story: Ngan Ha – Photos: Khanh Long

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