Written By - Gabriele De Capitani
The Beginning
Marble Mountains - Đà Nẵng , Vietnam
The first time I decided to take my camera out of the bag was actually a week into my travels. I had landed in Da Nang after a few days' stay in Hanoi, and had settled in Hoi An, a Small town in central Vietnam. That is where I would spend the first month of my trip, volunteering for a Hostel called “Dolphins Hostel”. Some days later, I had made friends with Jeff and Cloe, two other volunteers, and we went on an excursion to the Marble Mountains. After a long 1hr trip on Jeff’s motorbike, we arrived, alive, in the mountains and took the elevator up to this first viewpoint (there would be no more elevators from there). Here marks the moment of the beginning of my “professional travel photographer” career, not because I was paid for this, of course… but it just sounds better that way. I remember, after taking this picture, I thought: “Huh, this is my life now… I’m travelling, with my super heavy but amazing camera, and I take pictures…. FINALLY!”
I think this picture represents very well the reality that was Vietnam for me; excluding the big cities, it was much of thin, crammed, not particularly safe buildings that seemed “underdeveloped” to western standards, but at the same time had quite a charm to it, mixed in with the occasional beautiful temple and all surrounded by some form of beautiful scenery. In this case, I felt the mountains were hugging the town and liked to imagine the old, much older, town that was once there, hidden in between this little valley on which people would go both to pray and to mine. As the plane in the distance and the 5G antenna in the foreground might give away, times have changed, and the Marbel Mountains remain a place for Prayer and for admiration of a wonderful culture.
This is Chloe, she was a fellow voulunteer with me at the hostel. I thought she was a happy person, one of the first hippy-ish people I met on this trip, but cetenly not the last.
Jeff was one of the more “senior” voulunteers, but he wasn’t that old. Probably the “cool uncle” of the group, I could always count on him for tips on where to explore and especially what to eat all over Asia.
Climbing up that mountain and sweating more than I had in a long time, I explored the old monuments and temples, some where out in the open and others were hidden in caves. It’s quite interesting to me to see places of prayer and meditation “hidden” from view; this one in particular required us to crawl through a closing cave passage, on the other side of which lay well… this.
If you wonder why sometimes my pictures are in black and white or some kind of monochrome, its abosultely because I find that particular scene, subject, or moment to be better represented in that way, underlining the chiaroscuro, the shape, the atmosphere, without the need for or the distraction of colors.
Definitely not because the colors came out badly.
While not immediately apparent, a young girl decided to enter my frame right as I was about to take the picture, so I simply waited and decided to use her as a point of reference, showing the sheer size of this temple inside a cave inside a mountain
Động Âm Phủ, Đà Nẵng , Vietnam
Chloe exploring the caves
“A cave connected to the clouds”
Antique chinese inscription
As we continued our exploration, we climbed through narrower passages that eventually led us into this karst tower cave. It was a dead end, but as the sun began to set and the wet heat turned into a cold breeze, we noticed a singular opening in the very top, about 20 meters above us, providing the little remaining light from the sky.
On the very top, some tourists were laughing and yelling down at us; we couldn’t see each other but had one of those classic travel interactions where we don’t understand anything we’re saying, have no idea where we are from, or where we are, and yet manage to have fun together.
After yelling at some tourists, we noticed some markings on the side of the stone wall. The upper one is written in traditional stylized Chinese and approximately reads “A cave connected to the clouds”, most likely referring to the opening above us. The other inscription, captured on the middle-right part of the photograph, is an ancient slate, contained within a house-shaped decoration, the writings of which, despite some research, are still a mystery to me.
I remember feeling like an explorer while entering this cave, seeing the old inscriptions on the wall, fallen rocks on the floor, darkened corners of the cave, and the faint light coming in from the ceiling hole. When I shot this picture, I wanted to portray the feeling of exploration, a young, small woman looking up and into a dark hole within an old, vast cave. I thought the backpack was a nice touch to better show a traveller/ an explorer in front of a mysterious somewhere.
“A cave connected to the clouds”