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| Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved |
So here is a gallery of 12 monochrome photographs made in its streets. For these I used my Fuji X Pro-1 and the Fujinon 18mm f2.0 lens and most were shot from the hip.
I didn't know this while on my last month's photo expedition-workshop, but it's said that Hanoi's Old Quarter consists of 36 streets (in reality, there's almost twice that number), each originally named for a traditional trade, and those eventually forming guilds. For instance, Hàng Muối (salt) Street was where the salt traders converged to sell their ware. Not surprising, since Hanoi's Old Quarter has a history that spans 2,000 years.
This has now changed to a great extent, with some exceptions such as Hang Bac street (which I walked up and down many times) and that was and still is where goldsmiths and silversmiths plied their craft/trade. Most street names in the Old Quarter start with the word Hàng. Hàng means merchandise or shop.
In Vietnamese, the formal term for street is đường phố; the latter word not be confused with its delicious signature soup, but which is a staple of its streets.
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