Yen Duong
by Yen Duong from Saigon, Vietnam
Self-portrait with dead plants
This photograph was taken during the lockdown in Vietnam in April 2020. I’m living alone in this studio apartment in Ho Chi Minh city, and throughout the few weeks of lockdown, I still went out to cover Covid-19 every weekend for wire news while spending the rest of the time at home. All my loved ones are far away, either in another city or in another country, so being on my own during a pandemic really makes me feel like the loneliest person in the world sometimes.
For days I kept having recurring nightmares about being bitten to death by the ants in my room, and would wake up in the middle of the night at 3am sharp for no reason. It became like an obsession, and I would see and feel the ants on my skin everywhere I go. One day, I found out that they piled up under my pillow, so I went on a rampage and washed everything in the room with ants on it. I have a phobia of moving black dots.
That’s when I decided to attempt to document and journal my nightmares and my fears. I only keep track of nightmares, because I can’t really remember the good dreams. Flying insects, crazy ants, black shadows lurking at night watching me sleep, waking up surrounded by dead plants. I still have to leave the light on to be able to go to sleep at night. So many things can happen in the dark, especially when no one else can hear you.
SELF-PORTRAITS: PHOTOGRAPHERS IN CONFINEMENT
Curated by Svetlana Bachevanova (USA/France)
A collection of self-portraits made by photojournalists from five continents during the unprecedent lockdown due to the corona virus pandemic.
Photographers are people on the road, living to document the lives of others.
Constrained by the lockdown, many of them had their first experience of being still long enough to begin seeing and understanding small details about who they are, their lifestyles and values, that were overshadowed while they were busy. These self-portraits express their experience.
This is a unique collection of self-portraits from some of the best lenses in photojournalism at an historic moment.
Photographers in Confinement is a project in process and I welcome additional submissions from photojournalists at svetlana@fotoevidence.com
I am looking for potential exhibition partners in the USA and abroad.
Svetlana Bachevanova is a founder and publisher of FotoEvidence, long time photojournalist and curator.
