Couple – Christmas Eve, Ho Chi Minh City, 2014

One of the things I really like about Ho Chi Minh City, is the amount of life that goes on at the street level. Sometimes there are motorcycle traffic jams, where the riders are shoulder to shoulder at the traffic lights, and when the lights change, they move off en-mass, rather like a swarm of grumpy bees. Strangely, if you are feeling brave, you can still cross the road, if you keep a steady pace and DON’T STEP BACKWARDS! I can’t emphasise that enough. The riders will miss you, but only just. Even crossing the road is an adventure in Ho Chi Minh City.

In photography, there are two schools of thought: those who want to carry everything with them, so they’ve “got it covered”; and those who carry the minimum, just “enough”. On this occasion, I was just carrying a Pearl River tlr (twin lens reflex), loaded with some old Shanghai GP3. Neither is great for photographing at night (slow lens and slow film) – but I still managed to take this picture.

I had been hovering photographing people coming to see the Christmas decorations opposite the Tax Centre (a famous landmark department store in Ho Chi Ming City). It was Christmas Eve and lots of young people where just cruising around – when I saw this couple and asked for a picture. They seemed bemused, but I like it and there is the Tax Centre behind them.