
PICTORIAL STORY
August 13, 2021
DON'T WITHER AWAY
Photography and words by Vinh Tran
Introduction by Melanie Meggs
Vinh Tran is a documentary and street photographer currently based in Vietnam. Vinh allows his photography to become his vocabulary, allowing the visual to become his words. For Vinh photography has become part of his daily practice, carrying a camera all the time, taking images of everything and everyone. Photography has become an integral part of his life.
In April 2021, Vinh visited a nursing home in Hanoi, illustrating his imaginary fear. One of his biggest fears is living a life without any objectives. He imagined if he was old already, a life he was too old he could not accomplish a list of goals and not being able to achieve them. There were many times he asked himself: "What is it like living in a nursing home? Especially when you are an introvert who needs personal space 24/7. Would it be ok to live in a nursing home when you are a person with countless objectives and expectations?". These questions led Vinh to this project.
For most of my existence, I have been fighting with my parents to achieve freedom for myself. The priceless space that offers me the right to make my own decisions in any circumstances, to freely follow my dreams, and to live as a young man with countless ambitions independently. Asian parents are well-known for being invariably overprotective of their children, which triggered my curiosity about what it is like to be a child raised by non-Asian parents.
Is it necessarily true that Western parents are more liberal as they seemingly give the decisions and feelings of their children more consideration?
Back in April 2017, when I had a conversation with a Canadian friend and his mother, I asked a question that had always been deeply hidden in my memory related to my curiosity of the Parent-Child relationship in Western society:
"Would you move to an elderly care center or live with your son when you are old?"
She held her son's hand and said: "Of course I would live with my son. Therefore M, please don't leave me alone when I'm old, honey." I felt shocked and, at the same time, immensely emotional by her answer. It fractured my bright imaginary perception of aging in Western countries.
This series of images was taken in a nursing home in Hanoi throughout April 2021. I talked to the elders here, listened to them, sympathised with them, and witnessed different emotional nuances from numerous stories. My approach illustrates the imaginary fear of loneliness at old age, the feeling of pointlessness and emptiness. The definition of time becomes vague. Life turning upside down in a loop of boredom as there are no more objectives and expectations.



















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