Time-honoured rituals characterize the pages by Günther Komnick, and, as in other visual studies of cities and countries, so much of that which defines a country or a people, is to be seen in the streets. The idea of public spaces, where people share and meet and squabble and laugh, and sleep and dance and even shower, is very different from country to country, from culture to culture. Ways of being is what one could say defines at least one aspect of culture, namely, how one interacts with the world around you, and seen thus, the case of Vietnam offers us a panoply of colours, face gestures and activities, all seemingly pursued with a vital passion. Here in Vietnam, you will see images depicting the intense enjoyment of food, or of a lad just showing off with his scooter, the centrality of the image one gives forth to the world, of individuals consciously seeing themselves as mobile works of art, of cutting a fine figure, of the individual in a sense seeing him or herself as a Gesamtkunstwerk. The combination of colours and attitudes and stances, facial expressions, again show the street as the pulse of a constant metamorphosis, of exploration of one’s neighbour, or of strangers, where the street is alive with ways possibilities of being. 

     Vietnam is also an evocative place, influenced heavily by its French colonial past and shaped by a devastating war that last nigh on thirty years. Ideology and strident power struggles have conspired to make corruption almost de rigueurÌ› and yet the wisdom of the people, as they stare into the camera, speak of hardship and courage and the knowledge that their culture has imparted to them will stand them in good stead for generations to come.

Dr Wilhelm Snyman, Auckland, New Zealand