Cao Nguyen Huy Hoang
Sarah Kirchner
Hoang:
"I understand what you meant in your email about the gender insecurities you feel. Habitually, when I'm walking alone late at night and I'm walking behind another girl, I would subconsciously change lanes.
I do share your fear of government because in my country it is our reality that we don't have any kind of political platform for speech, opinion, nor action. Among each of us Vietnamese, we know that if we were to be the first to speak out against the government, we will be the first jailed. Actually, the first lesson about etiquette that my mom taught me was that I should not say anything negative about our country in general in the public.
Mockingly, there is this song about the hyper inflated image of our leader. There is this song that says "Ai yêu bác Hồ Chí Minh hơn thiếu niên nhi đồng" - Who love uncle Ho more than the children of Vietnam?
Much of what being Vietnamese in the past 20 years is being politically suppressed, oppressed, and self-censorship. Actually, most of the laws that were accused against people who spoke out were "for the stability and safety of the country", in other words, people in power usually justify these actions as "if you don't do anything wrong then who can accuse you?". It's this weird situation where ideology has prevailed and any measure of moral reasoning has lost legitimacy.
Back to my point about safety. So with that sense of lack of a sense of agency, dignity, and power, I feel like we have to overcompensate so much. To drive economic growth, the thing people are allowed to strive for or as normative as expected: family, wealth, fame, and safety, the thing that safeguards everything.
So I am against the concept of safety because safety for some never means safety for all.
In another way I could say that I strive to understand more how my safety affects others. This could also be because as a male, I don't have much worries about being violated in terms of my body and mind.
This is quite abstract and I don't know how should I express it in photography, how would you plan to express yours?"
I do share your fear of government because in my country it is our reality that we don't have any kind of political platform for speech, opinion, nor action. Among each of us Vietnamese, we know that if we were to be the first to speak out against the government, we will be the first jailed. Actually, the first lesson about etiquette that my mom taught me was that I should not say anything negative about our country in general in the public.
Mockingly, there is this song about the hyper inflated image of our leader. There is this song that says "Ai yêu bác Hồ Chí Minh hơn thiếu niên nhi đồng" - Who love uncle Ho more than the children of Vietnam?
Much of what being Vietnamese in the past 20 years is being politically suppressed, oppressed, and self-censorship. Actually, most of the laws that were accused against people who spoke out were "for the stability and safety of the country", in other words, people in power usually justify these actions as "if you don't do anything wrong then who can accuse you?". It's this weird situation where ideology has prevailed and any measure of moral reasoning has lost legitimacy.
Back to my point about safety. So with that sense of lack of a sense of agency, dignity, and power, I feel like we have to overcompensate so much. To drive economic growth, the thing people are allowed to strive for or as normative as expected: family, wealth, fame, and safety, the thing that safeguards everything.
So I am against the concept of safety because safety for some never means safety for all.
In another way I could say that I strive to understand more how my safety affects others. This could also be because as a male, I don't have much worries about being violated in terms of my body and mind.
This is quite abstract and I don't know how should I express it in photography, how would you plan to express yours?"
"I decided to look for public instances of activities that showcase the friction between individual safety and public safety. Rivers are central to the history of the economy in my country but is also what runs through daily lives in my city. These natural settings are, as our nature has it, barred to ensure that we won't endanger ourselves by coming in contact with these bodies of nature.
Usually these river banks are teeming with people and activity, daily routines, work, relaxation, relationships, and life. But since covid and since large scale real estate developers get involved with the local landscape, these spaces have mostly been planned, systematised, and made safe.
Still, however hard they made their fences, people always find a way."
Usually these river banks are teeming with people and activity, daily routines, work, relaxation, relationships, and life. But since covid and since large scale real estate developers get involved with the local landscape, these spaces have mostly been planned, systematised, and made safe.
Still, however hard they made their fences, people always find a way."
Sarah:
"Safety is such a big and complex construct and If you had asked me one year ago my answer would have been completely different.
I feel like I first have to talk about feeling unsafe and danger before I can arrive at a concept of safety.
Growing up in Germany as part of a white middle class family my life felt pretty protected and safe. What I am trying to say is I never experienced the threats that people who are part of a marginalized group fear in their every-day life.
Still the one thing that makes me feel unsafe in my every-day life now that I am not a kid anymore is men. Especially when I am by myself and it is dark outside and the men are drunk.
There is so many things that a woman can´t do or should not do because it is simply unsafe. Like hitch-hiking, walking home after a party alone, being alone on public transport after dark, sleeping in your car at the side of the road, wearing a sexy outfit because you feel like it. The list goes on and this makes me so angry because I want to do all of these things but If I do I always have the worst case scenario as a possible outcome in my head.
I have this unconscious routine where when I see men in the distance and I am by myself I always change the side of the road and pretend to be on the phone.
So yes there is this constant unease.
Apart from this threat of physical harm I have felt a general unease the last year.
It is not the virus that I am afraid of but its effect in has on myself and everyone around me.
What scares me is how much power the government has about our basic rights and how easily those can be altered.
I acknowledge that the virus is very real and a threat to many people. I think we all have to do our part in protecting the vulnerable even if it means great personal sacrifice.
But I really find it very scary that an institution can make it illegal for me to leave my house, establish borders, stop me legally from seeing my family.
I feel like danger is a state that can come from something external. Danger can come from a virus, violent people, extremists and so on.
But what if the danger comes from something internal? For me safety and sanity are very closely linked. What happens if you cant trust your own thoughts anymore? I have the biggest power over my own safety and sometimes I am loosing trust that I can always act in my best interest.
On the other side when I feel aligned with myself I feel incredibly safe. Because no matter what happens I will still have myself.
Apart from that I have some specific things that can give me great comfort when I feel at unease. My car is my moving safety box. When everything gets too much this is my way to escape. At the same time I am in a closed space, my own little bubble that "protects" me from the outside world.
I try to only rely on myself because if everything fails that is all I got."
"Safety is such a big and complex construct and If you had asked me one year ago my answer would have been completely different.
I feel like I first have to talk about feeling unsafe and danger before I can arrive at a concept of safety.
Growing up in Germany as part of a white middle class family my life felt pretty protected and safe. What I am trying to say is I never experienced the threats that people who are part of a marginalized group fear in their every-day life.
Still the one thing that makes me feel unsafe in my every-day life now that I am not a kid anymore is men. Especially when I am by myself and it is dark outside and the men are drunk.
There is so many things that a woman can´t do or should not do because it is simply unsafe. Like hitch-hiking, walking home after a party alone, being alone on public transport after dark, sleeping in your car at the side of the road, wearing a sexy outfit because you feel like it. The list goes on and this makes me so angry because I want to do all of these things but If I do I always have the worst case scenario as a possible outcome in my head.
I have this unconscious routine where when I see men in the distance and I am by myself I always change the side of the road and pretend to be on the phone.
So yes there is this constant unease.
Apart from this threat of physical harm I have felt a general unease the last year.
It is not the virus that I am afraid of but its effect in has on myself and everyone around me.
What scares me is how much power the government has about our basic rights and how easily those can be altered.
I acknowledge that the virus is very real and a threat to many people. I think we all have to do our part in protecting the vulnerable even if it means great personal sacrifice.
But I really find it very scary that an institution can make it illegal for me to leave my house, establish borders, stop me legally from seeing my family.
I feel like danger is a state that can come from something external. Danger can come from a virus, violent people, extremists and so on.
But what if the danger comes from something internal? For me safety and sanity are very closely linked. What happens if you cant trust your own thoughts anymore? I have the biggest power over my own safety and sometimes I am loosing trust that I can always act in my best interest.
On the other side when I feel aligned with myself I feel incredibly safe. Because no matter what happens I will still have myself.
Apart from that I have some specific things that can give me great comfort when I feel at unease. My car is my moving safety box. When everything gets too much this is my way to escape. At the same time I am in a closed space, my own little bubble that "protects" me from the outside world.
I try to only rely on myself because if everything fails that is all I got."
"I want to focus on the concept of safety that only I can provide for myself. Because being physically safe is determined to a great part by the environment I am in and therefore not always in my control.
Feeling safe has a lot to do with being in control, you can feel safe in the absence of control but only if your environment "protects" you to ensure that you can let your guard down.
There is so much instability in the world and in my personal life right now that the only way I can gain some notion of safety is by turning inwards, because the external is too messy.
It is difficult to visualize this internal process because it is not visible.
Therefore I am looking for objects that support themselves, or attempt to.
There is this plant in my living room that grows upwards on a stick. At the same time it wraps itself around its own stem, to ensure stability. It is using itself to gain more stability in order to protect itself from outside influence therefore gaining safety. This for me illustrates exactly how I feel right now."
Feeling safe has a lot to do with being in control, you can feel safe in the absence of control but only if your environment "protects" you to ensure that you can let your guard down.
There is so much instability in the world and in my personal life right now that the only way I can gain some notion of safety is by turning inwards, because the external is too messy.
It is difficult to visualize this internal process because it is not visible.
Therefore I am looking for objects that support themselves, or attempt to.
There is this plant in my living room that grows upwards on a stick. At the same time it wraps itself around its own stem, to ensure stability. It is using itself to gain more stability in order to protect itself from outside influence therefore gaining safety. This for me illustrates exactly how I feel right now."