River of Ten Thousand Springs is an inquiry into Vietnamese national identity and its paradoxicality: what makes Vietnamese people Vietnamese, apart from social interactions and collective belief which is vulnerable? Are we able to know who we are, while our origin is built from unverifiable myths and oral history?
“National identity within each individual is inexplicable. No one is Vietnamese by themselves. We are placed in a predetermined socio-cultural framework. The strong collision with surrounding cultures, foreign imports, and the relentless fluctuations of history have diluted the Vietnamese identity, making it an unknown concept,” says Mien-Thuy Tran.
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Mien-Thuy Tran is a self-taught photographer based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
For the first time, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Joop Swart Masterclass took place online over a period of four months, and 24 participants and eight masters were selected to make the program more inclusive. The educational experience of the Joop Swart Masterclass is based on an assignment to produce a photo essay around a given theme. This year the theme was ‘Reset’.
