Arresting imagery

Friday February 25, 2011


Past and present convergence....


There was an image in my mind, something I had seen many times but had not been able to capture.  A common theme in Viet Nam... the blending of the past and the present.

If you want to see something, go to the street...   everything that is, has been on the street in one form or another. Like the blood vessels that carry all of the elements that build our bodies the streets carry the elements that build a city.  So this is where I went to set the stage for the image that I was to build.



The shoot...


In the pursute of this I enlisted the help of a young man named Mẫn (I've tried to figure out how to explain how to pronounce Mẫn's name but the truth is I can't say it right myself and I've had half a dozen people try to help me to learn it with no success)  We scouted various locations, talked about concept and in the end Mẫn thought it would be best to stage the shoot in his home town of Vinh Long rather than Saigon so as to avoid any entanglements with the authorities who might take exception to what we had planned what with blocking traffic and all.  I deferred to his judgment and we planned a date to meet.  Vinh Long is one of the larger cities in the Mekong Delta and since I was planning to be in the area to shoot the floating market anyway it didn't seem like much a stretch to do the shoot there.

On the appointed day, we met, collected our props, enlisted our model and made our way to one of the main boulevards in town to do the shoot.  Everything went well,  the light was good, our model performed on cue and generally I was very happy.  A bit more about the model;  this women was an incredible sport about the whole thing.  She did everything we asked her to do without complaint and at some potential danger (though not as much as it would appear).  She was fearless and in the end had fun doing it.
With evening upon us I sent our model home and Mẫn, his wife, and Kim (my friend) and I packed up and we went to dinner.  We enjoyed a sunset dinner by the MeKong river and viewed the images from the day... all was well.



Slow, Flat and detained...


On the way back to Mẫn's house, where we would be staying that night, my bike started running rather rough and my speed was reduced to about ten mph.  To make matters worse, Mẫn's bike got a flat.  So, we limped our way to one of the many flat repair shops along the road and got Mẫn's tire fixed and then it was off to another shop to have a look at my bike.  As it turned out that shop was on the same intersection that we had done the shoot several hours earlier.
As soon as we pulled into the parking lot we were approached by two green uniformed police officers who detained us at the shop but wouldn't tell us why.  I was feeling rather defiant at the time and I assumed that we were being shook down for a bribe and frankly I was in no mood. As it turned out, that was not the case and after a few minutes a few more offers showed up, and then a few more and then a few more.  This went of for quite some time until there where about twenty of these guys all just standing around making sure we didn't go anywhere until there boss arrived.  There was also quite a crowd from the neighborhood developing. There must have been about fifty to seventy five people standing around wondering what was going on..  About a half hour later there boss shows up, dressed in tan slacks and a white shirt, he is obviously in charge and not happy to be there.  He demands that we go back to the station. And I in a typically American fashion refused and demanded to know why we were being harassed.  In retrospect, inciting a stand off with twenty or so police was probably not the best thing to do, but at the time it seemed better to be in a place with a lot of witnesses and I knew once we were at the police station we would be isolated at an ever increasing disadvantage.  In the end it was Mẫn who persuaded me to go along, so we went.



Suspicion of conspiracy...


Once at the station, which as it turns out was only about a block away, we were separated and the others in our party where rather energetically interrogated.  Know one was talking to me because I refused to talk to anyone until an interpreter was provided. (this gave me the opportunity to text my brother Andrew and let him know what was going on. He contacted the US embassy and in turn the embassy called me, so I was confident that we wouldn't just fall off the radar).  On the way over Mẫn made it clear to Kim who passed the information on to me that under no circumstances where we to admit to any particular  association with each other and for this reason Kim refused to interpret on my behalf.  As it was going, know one was admitting to anything.  Mẫn's wife, who was 7 months pregnant, was playing the "I don't know what's going on card",teary eyed and can't you see the condition I'm in..., Mẫn was "cool as could be" complete with a barley perceptible wry smile... totally in control and confident that nothing would come of any of it.  Kim, on the other hand, went "totally ballistic".  I wasn't sure who was interrogating who.  After only a few minutes the poor guy had to be traded out for a more experienced officer who still made no headway with her.
About two hours into this interrogation odyssey it was my turn. Two interpreters showed up and I was able to start getting some clarification as to what was going on. Also, the bosses boss showed up to take control of the situation.  He was of a different caliber than the others; smart, educated, reasoned and he spoke english very well.



Much ado...

Clearly this situation had gotten out of control... it was just so much ado about nothing, but the more ado that was made the more of something had to be made of it.  By this point, there were about thirty green uniformed officers milling around, there boss, and his boss.  We were hours into this and something was going to have to come of it to justify all the trouble. On the other hand, upon review of the images in the camera it was clear that there really wasn't a bigger conspiracy at work. But what to do?

They had to do something, but since we had't actually broken any laws there wasn't anything to jail us over or even a reason to levy a fine (not that having a reason has ever stopped them before). They knew, or at least the big boss seemed to know, that if they over reacted that the whole thing could blow up in there face. (Fortunately the US embassy had called during our conversation--Thank you Andrew!) So what to do...  I saw an opportunity and decided to seize upon it.  I offered to erase the images from the CS card in the camera in exchange for them dropping the whole thing and letting us go. And in a show of good faith, and to there astonishment, I formatted the card before they could stop me. (ok, so it wasn't good faith, I figured the less evidence the better) OK, so done deal right.... no. There was much heated discussion for a few moments. The middle boss was very angry about the who thing, he wanted something else... the big boss came back with-- but you can recover the images even after formatting (rats... he on to me.) So I said, OK OK... you can have the card, but only if you promise to let us all go and be done with it. Then he says, How do I know you didn't down load the images to a computer?  (OK so now he's really on to me and riffling through my computer just isn't part of the option package I'm willing to put up, especially since the images where on my computer).



And in the category of best actor... (Distract and redirect)

I was in a tight spot... on the one hand up to this point know one had done anything that was punishable. On the other hand he was going down a road that would put my computer in his hands and would likely lead to the entire archive being wiped and or me having to defend every shoot that I had done to that point. Not to mention that the Old women shoot was on my computer.  So, I took a risk and said that I hadn't had time to down load the images... and then I immediately launched into a surprisingly out of character song and dance (so to speak) of outrage and indignation, I stood up raised my voice, waved my arms and demand to see a lawyer and my consulate!!!  After all That I Have Done for You...  You Treat Me Like This... I'm Not Putting Up the This....Arrest Me or Let Me Go.... I Haven't Broken Any Laws .....     it was shocking, even to me.  And it got me what I needed, enough distraction to allow me to redirect there or his attention back to the CS card that I had already offered.   The last thing anyone wanted was to have this thing which wasn't a thing turn into a thing, so I got the subject back to the card.  They would keep the card and we would go and that was that. It worked. There was  a little more drama concerning me signing a receipt of the card but I conceded and we all walked out of door with a good story to tell.
In the end, after thoroughly wiping the card they did mail the card back to me...bonus!

Arrest worthy???  Hardly, but it made for a good story.