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In my last blog post, I said I would do a final post on my commission over the summer, and while this will be my last post on the shooting, it isn’t the last you’ll hear of the commission. I still have to go back to Italy for the book presentation.

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Our last location was in Ho Chi Mihn City, Vietnam. I had never been to Asia, so I was excited by this trip in more ways than one. It marks the fifth continent I have traveled to (North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and now Asia) and my 20th country.I was lucky enough to score a fairly direct flight. I went straight from Chicago to Hong Kong. For anyone that’s wondering, that is an almost 15-hour flight encompassing over 7,700 miles. Yay for frequent flyer numbers. From there, it was a 2.5 hour flight to Ho Chi Mihn. I landed just after midnight (there is a 12-hour time change) and was picked up by someone from the factory. I arrived at the hotel around 1:30am and had to be up and to the factory for shooting by 8am. I was tired.

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We had three days of shooting in Vietnam, where I got to wander the factory looking for people that interested me and then photograph them. By this point in the process of shooting this project, I had gotten pretty accustomed to this method. By the time I landed in Vietnam, I had already shot more than 100 people.

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Once the shooting wrapped up, we had a few extra days to ourselves. We spent a couple in the city and two on the Mekong Delta in a large river boat, cruising down the river. Most of my time on the boat was spent laying on the roof in the sun. We did get up for sunrise (and photos) on one of the days. The fog (or humidity — I’m not sure which it was) was amazing and strange to shoot in.

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Then, after 10 days, it was time to head back home. Once I arrived, it was a mad dash to finish up all of the editing and get the images over to Italy to be printed. The last details are still being worked out, but for the most part, after 35,000 miles, 65 hours in an airplane seat, 5 countries, 140 portraits, and 3,500 images; the project is done. I’ve had a busy and fruitful summer.

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