Location · Southern Vietnam
Saigon
Tiles, neon, tree-lined avenues, and a city that photographs best after dark.
Tiles, neon, tree-lined avenues, and a city that photographs best after dark.
Nine million people and nobody standing still. Saigon is the loudest place we work and the one that gives back the most colour, which is why it is the city couples choose when they want the pictures to feel like now rather than like history.
The useful thing about Saigon is that it has not been tidied. Cholon, the old Chinese quarter, is tiled in orange, green and faded red, with shopfronts and hand-painted signs that would be stripped out of a city that cared more about looking smart. The apartment blocks in District 1 have stairwells and balconies that photograph like film sets. The avenues near the centre are lined with tamarind trees that throw moving shade all afternoon.
And then there is the night. Saigon after dark, lit properly, is the strongest thing in our whole portfolio from this city. We bring our own light for it, and those are usually the frames couples print large.
Saigon is warm all year, between about twenty six and thirty five degrees. There is no cold month, so pack for heat whatever the dates say.
Sunrise in Cholon while the streets are still being hosed down, a long break through the hard light, then the late afternoon and into the dark. Six working hours, up to two city locations, transport between them included.
A Saigon session is USD 880, with hair and make-up, two gowns and one suit, 300 to 400 original files and 40 retouched photographs. Our studio is at 2 Tan Canh, Tan Binh.
USD 880 for six hours and up to two city locations, including hair and make-up, two gowns and one suit from our wardrobe, transport between locations, 300 to 400 original files and 40 fully retouched photographs.
The tiled shopfronts and painted walls of Cholon, the old apartment blocks and their stairwells, the tree-lined avenues in District 1, the Museum of Fine Arts and the Ho Chi Minh City Museum for colonial interiors, and the city at night, which we light ourselves.
December to April is the dry season: clear mornings, hard midday sun, long warm evenings. May to November brings a heavy downpour most afternoons, so we move sessions to sunrise and keep an indoor location in reserve.
Different, not better. Hanoi gives you age, narrow lanes and ao dai. Saigon gives you colour, modern energy, tiles, neon and a night city that photographs beautifully. Couples who want pictures that look traditional pick Hanoi. Couples who want pictures that look alive pick Saigon.
Yes. Our Saigon studio is at 2 Tan Canh in Tan Binh, and the Museum of Fine Arts, with its tiled floors, wooden staircase and stained glass, is the location we fall back on in the wet season.