Karnow’s photograph of a teacher named Tran Thi Diep on the Thong Nhat train in 1990.
She noticed Diep sitting by the window with a thoughtful expression while.
In 2010 Karnow received a message on social media from a woman named Thao, who said the person in the photo was her mother. The two women later met and became close friends.
In 2018 Karnow traveled from the U.S. to Vietnam to attend Diep’s daughter’s wedding.
The photograph is displayed at the exhibition “Viet Nam – Mot Dat Nuoc Dang Doi Thay 1990-2015” (Vietnam – Documenting A Changing Country 1990-2015), held from May 21 to Dec. 5 at 45 Trang Tien Street in Hanoi as part of the Photo Hanoi’25 program.
A retired music professor sitting at home in Hanoi in 1990.
Karnow said he spent his time playing love songs on a one-string guitar.
She first visited Vietnam in July 1990.
“Vietnam was barely open to the rest of the world; the door had been cracked open only very slightly.”
People in HCMC waiting for a ferry to return home across the Saigon River after work in 1990.
On Nov. 20, 2011, the Saigon River tunnel (Thu Thiem tunnel) opened and connected the city center with the suburbs.
Relatives of Emperor Bao Dai and the last members of the feudal aristocracy, 35 years ago.
Behind them is their family cemetery in Hue City.
Two cyclo drivers carrying two foreign businessmen in 1994.
That year U.S. President Bill Clinton announced the lifting of his country’s trade embargo on Vietnam.
People welcoming General Vo Nguyen Giap during his visit to a forest military base in Dien Bien Phu in 1994.
In Vietnam, Karnow had the opportunity to photograph figures such as late General Vo Nguyen Giap and sculptor Diep Minh Chau.
She is the daughter of American historian and journalist Stanley Karnow, author of “Vietnam: A History”, a book on the Vietnam War.
Following her father’s introduction, she was the only foreign photographer to cover General Giap’s visit to Dien Bien 31 years ago.
Writer Bao Ninh 35 years ago through Karnow’s lens.
At the time he was known for his novel “Noi Buon Chien Tranh” (The Sorrow of War), which shook the literary world with its raw portrayal of the realities and suffering of war.
A barber shop on a sidewalk in Hanoi in 2014.
Bui Pham Quat (L) worked as a barber and also created the wall behind him as a sculptor.
Karnow has returned to Vietnam several times over the past 30 years to document the country’s development.
Catherine Karnow, 65, was born in Hong Kong and worked as a photojournalist for U.S. TV channel National Geographic.
In 2015 she held an exhibition to mark her 25 years of working in Vietnam.
In October that year she ran a 13-day photography clinic in Hanoi, Hue, Da Nang, and Hoi An.
At Photo Hanoi’25, she presented the exhibition “Viet Nam – Mot Dat Nuoc Dang Doi Thay 1990-2015” and gave two talks on Nov. 22 and 23.
She will be hosting a photography workshop on Nov. 29.
