His fondness for Vietnam has resulted in his several trips to this beautiful and highly diverse country with a tragic past. Vietnam is key to John’s five-year project to document contemporary life with a series of themes focusing on older people, markets, etc. His portraits of old people are strong and spirited with a lot of character and burden of past evident in their visage, whereas images of younger generations are full of energy and entrepreneurship. There is more to his Vietnam images than this contrast; it is an attempt to capture its generally silent and shy people not as a tourist or a casual street photographer, but as a keen observer and a friend.