Water: A Life Force Harnessed as News
Water is the essence of life, and its cleanliness, availability, and our use and abuse of it are stories meriting reporters’ and editors’ attention. Yet as Stuart Leavenworth, who covered water issues for The Sacramento Bee and describes the wide array of issues he took on, reports: “To my chagrin, I had the beat largely to myself for four years. Across the country, papers have tackled problems of water pollution and degradation, but have overlooked fundamental issues of supply—and sustainability. This is curious.”
Forty years ago, I was a United Press International staff photographer in the Saigon bureau, and I spent two years making some really scary pictures. Scary to make, scary to look at. I did my best to bring the war home, and I’m proud of the work I did.
I was a young photographer then, and the things I thought were important to photograph were the extraordinary, the outstanding, the different. Over the years I’ve changed. What I now think is most important to photograph, at least for me, is a careful documentation of our daily doings, our ordinary daily life. How we live, how we dress, the things we cherish.
I loved Vietnam, its people, its colors, its geography, its food and culture. And I’ve always wished I could have had, or taken, the time to photograph more of the beauty and elegance of that part of the world, more of their daily doings.
I finally had my chance. My old correspondent and best friend is Martin Stuart-Fox. Martin is now professor emeritus at the University of Queensland, Australia, and a leading expert on Southeast Asia. We were given a contract to do a book on the history of the three capitals of Laos—Champassak, Vientiane and Luang Prabang. That assignment finished, we went on to Vietnam, where I finally got to make some peaceful and quiet pictures. They were a long time in coming but worth the wait. It felt very good to be back again.
Steve Northup, a 1974 Nieman Fellow, is a freelance photojournalist.
Musicians on Phung Island, in the Mekong Delta.
A scholar in a Confucian temple in Hanoi.
The giant rock islands, known as “the dragon descending,” were the scene of a important naval victory of the Vietnamese, who lured a much larger Chinese naval force into these waters and took them apart. Ha Long: Ha Long Bay, Vietnam.
Pensioners gathered for reading and conversation in one of the courtyards of the Temple of Literature, Hanoi.
One of the most crowded spots in a crowded city is the path around Hoan Keim Lake, where scores of Hanoi’s residents arrive for their morning exercises.
A man unloads rice husks to feed giant pottery kilns in Can Tho, Vietnam. Photos by Steve Northup.
I was a young photographer then, and the things I thought were important to photograph were the extraordinary, the outstanding, the different. Over the years I’ve changed. What I now think is most important to photograph, at least for me, is a careful documentation of our daily doings, our ordinary daily life. How we live, how we dress, the things we cherish.
I loved Vietnam, its people, its colors, its geography, its food and culture. And I’ve always wished I could have had, or taken, the time to photograph more of the beauty and elegance of that part of the world, more of their daily doings.
I finally had my chance. My old correspondent and best friend is Martin Stuart-Fox. Martin is now professor emeritus at the University of Queensland, Australia, and a leading expert on Southeast Asia. We were given a contract to do a book on the history of the three capitals of Laos—Champassak, Vientiane and Luang Prabang. That assignment finished, we went on to Vietnam, where I finally got to make some peaceful and quiet pictures. They were a long time in coming but worth the wait. It felt very good to be back again.
Steve Northup, a 1974 Nieman Fellow, is a freelance photojournalist.
Musicians on Phung Island, in the Mekong Delta.
A scholar in a Confucian temple in Hanoi.
The giant rock islands, known as “the dragon descending,” were the scene of a important naval victory of the Vietnamese, who lured a much larger Chinese naval force into these waters and took them apart. Ha Long: Ha Long Bay, Vietnam.
Pensioners gathered for reading and conversation in one of the courtyards of the Temple of Literature, Hanoi.
One of the most crowded spots in a crowded city is the path around Hoan Keim Lake, where scores of Hanoi’s residents arrive for their morning exercises.
A man unloads rice husks to feed giant pottery kilns in Can Tho, Vietnam. Photos by Steve Northup.
