photo sharing and upload picture albums photo forums search pictures popular photos photography help login
Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Forty-Eight: Telling stories with pictures > Multitasking, Hanoi, Vietnam, 2007
previous | next
18-DEC-2007

Multitasking, Hanoi, Vietnam, 2007

A fast-food worker chats on her cell phone while cleaning her restaurant's front door. She is squeezed between reminders of her job -- a huge hamburger -- and the holiday enticement that stands just beyond the glass. The image tells the story of how people juggle their priorities. We can be sure she is not talking to someone about the job she is doing – she wipes that door with the practiced hand of an automaton, and her back is turned to the juicy hamburger on the wall. Since relatively few Vietnamese celebrate Christmas (the holiday is promoted here largely for western tourists) we can assume that she is not particularly enamored with Santa, either. My hunch is that she is talking to her boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, or significant other. Ultimately, each viewer will decide where her priorities rest.

Leica V-Lux 1
1/50s f/3.6 at 25.0mm iso200 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
share
Phil Douglis04-May-2008 19:39
How can she break out of this box? That is the question I wanted this image to ask my viewers. Thanks, Tim, for noting the role of clashing cultural traditions here.
Tim May04-May-2008 18:31
I echo Ruth on this - I am overwhelmed by the boxing in of Western symbols here.
Phil Douglis19-Jan-2008 05:13
Thanks, Ruthie, for leaving your first comment in a long long time. And thanks, too, for being the first to comment on my latest images from Vietnam. I feel the passion, as always, in your words. You have been to Vietnam. You know the country, and its people. One of the reasons I made this image was to express how a culture can be eroded both from within and from without. I also ate in battered Pho shops in the Mekong Delta that are pretty much the same as they always have been and wonder if eventually, they, too, will surrender to western restaurant concepts such as this example represents. This young woman is indeed being squeezed and trapped and may well not even realize what is happening to her. It's just a job to her, but she has sacrificed her individuality, is overwhelmed by alien cultures, and probably does so unknowingly. Thanks for grasping it, and for articulating it as beautifully as always.
ruthemily18-Jan-2008 23:55
I get quite a sad feeling from this picture...not only is she squeezed by the images, but trapped by them. She's dressed in a uniform that defines her, within a workplace that defines not just her but will come to define a nation, and surrounded by depthless symbols of Santa, snowflakes and a bell, symbols which probably mean nothing to her on a personal level, but again, will come to be prominent symbols at that time. As Vietnam rises as a new Asian tiger, there will be consequences: the infiltration of capitalism for example...and just as our identities are defined by what we consume, so will hers come to be. The phone is the most poignant part I think - trying for a bit of escapism, when that escapism comes by way of yet another Western device.
Type your message and click Add Comment
It is best to login or register first but you may post as a guest.
Enter an optional name and contact email address. Name
Name Email
help private comment