Other Streets

About this book

Mark F. Erickson was born in Saigon in 1972, evacuated as part of Operation Babylift in April 1975, and adopted by an American family. At Harvard College, he studied Vietnamese history and documentary photography.In 1993, Mark returned to Vietnam and created a photographic record unlike any other. Through his extraordinary vision and deep respect for his subjects, his portrait of the Vietnamese is beautiful, lyrical and personal. Other Streets includes 90 duotone photographs.Preface to Other StreetsI have been carrying this film around for over a quarter century from Hanoi to Saigon to Boston and to New York. The origin of these photographs lies in the Saigon of the early 1970s where I was a war orphan. I count myself as one of the lucky ones: as part of Operation Babylift in April 1975, I was evacuated by the Americans from Tan Son Nhat to San Francisco International and, after a brief stop at the Presidio, to Buffalo Niagara where I was adopted in West Seneca, New York.As a child in western New York, I devoted hours to drawing, painting, and photography. For the last, my older brother had built a darkroom in our basement so I had access to everything I needed to learn the basics. As a student at Harvard College, I had the opportunity to study Vietnamese history with Hue-Tam Ho Tai and documentary photography with Chris Killip and David Goldblatt.Highly influenced by what I learned from them, I returned to Vietnam in 1993 with a manual 35mm camera, a basic tripod, and a lot of film. I spent countless days riding my gearless bicycle around Hanoi, shooting and burning images…

Description via Google Books