Girls in the Shade - A black and white photograph captured in Vietnam

Girls in the Shade

A black and white photograph captured in Vietnam

🎧 Listening suggestion: Electric Feel – TEEMID
This is the song I associate with this photo — with that whole period, actually.
Of course, feel free to listen to something else that brings up your own feelings ;)

Today, I chose to share this photo taken in Vietnam, on April 28th, 2024, at exactly 6:00:02 PM.
I was walking along the seaside promenade in Nha Trang.
I didn’t just see them — I really noticed them.
I only took one shot.
I didn’t want to be seen, didn’t want to disturb the moment. I wanted to respect it. Their moment.

I thought they looked rock’n’roll. I thought they looked beautiful.
And suddenly, they seemed to represent something much bigger.
A symbol. A real moment of life, of timeless youth.

Some people, some scenes, some moments — they hit you with a message.
Even if they don’t mean to.
And sometimes that message shakes you, in the best or the hardest ways.

It’s beautiful.
Sometimes it’s violent too.
It brings you back to yourself — your ego, your fragility, your sensitivity.
We’re all a bit self-centered in our own way ;)
Whether loud or quiet, it always hits something inside.

I love that kind of contrast.
These little things that move us without warning.

Dreams definitely have many forms — different meanings, different contexts.
But what triggers them never sends the same message to the one who’s watching.
That’s also what I love about photography: the chance to capture a moment, without ever really owning it.

Sometimes, we think we’re taking the photo…
But it’s the photo that takes us, and brings us somewhere else.
Every picture we capture says something about who we are, I think.

That day, I saw two young women.
But what I really saw was a mirror.
Of what we love.
Of what we recognize.
Because their attitude, their codes, their body language — it speaks to us, even when we don’t expect it.

A few words about black & white

I love it, of course. It’s super aesthetic, artistic — even kind of intellectual, in a way.
Black and white photography has a deep history. It’s how everything started.
It has a visual power. A psychological effect. It creates something timeless. That’s strong.

But people who know me know it’s not my usual go-to.
Mostly because… let’s be honest, I’m not really the “intellectual type” 😂
But still, when I use black and white, it’s a real choice. Maybe even too much thinking, sometimes.

I love color. I love intensity. Because that’s life. Real life. With all its chaos.

But here… black and white just felt right.
It stripped everything down.
It showed just the gesture, the silence, the tension.
It made the scene more timeless. More poetic. More intimate.

It’s always a question for me, every time I try black and white.
But this time, there was no doubt.

And then there was the music

When I walked , or ran along this promenade, this song was always playing.
It was part of my daily playlist.
It became part of the mood, the vibe, the story behind the photo, this strange feeling between motion and stillness.
And now, even today, every time I look at this photo… I can hear the first notes in my head.
Like the music belongs to the image.

📷 A piece of this moment to bring home?

👉 Discover and purchase the print: Click Here
→ Available as “Ready to frame” from €70
→ Or as a framed, numbered fine art edition — ready to hang