Duc Tran & Quan Doan
Quan: “I grew up in Saigon, Vietnam – the city of lights where walks of people in other parts of the country flowed to earn a living. I have lived in this “salad bowl” and found it very attractive though we all need to struggle every single day to make ends meet. Life is so beautiful as it is.”
Duc: “My Mom works as a cook for small companies. She is God when it comes to Korean cuisine, especially Kimchi. She is a beautiful woman and looks so much younger than her age, but wasn't lucky in life. After her second divorce, she raised my stepsister and me on her own. She admires her so much and always try my best to make her happy.”
“My Dad has never had a long-term job. He is a good man but also doesn't have an easy life. We used to meet on weekends to have breakfast together and he always brought me some comic books. Now I only meet him once or twice a year as I moved to Saigon and he still lived in Hanoi with his new family.”
Quan: “My parents have been selling food on the street. My Dad used to work as a motor taxi when I was in elementary school. He was always busy outside for the whole day. My Mom worked as a sewer for a garment factory. After that, they both quit the jobs and started a hawker, and are still doing that now.”
Duc: “I was not a super great student in my high school years, but I was lucky to just get a good enough score to get in Viet Duc, one of the best colleges in Hanoi. The students there mostly came from families with a relatively well-off background. I felt quite intimidated, and that pushed me to try harder to catch up. Finally, I got in a group of strong students in my class, although I was probably the worst of them. At that time, I had no idea what I wanted to become. I liked drawing, creative stuff, etc., but never did I think of making it a career.”
Quan: “My study path was not very smooth. I failed most of the essential exams during my high school life although my performance had been great.”
Duc: “I first went to the University of Economics and Law to study International Relations in Saigon. After 3 years, I gradually realized that I only did what people wanted me to do, not what I had a passion for. That's when I decided to study Graphic Design in FPT Arena Communication after got a 50% scholarship. I would sooner have quit University and dedicated all my time only for Graphic Design but in hindsight, those days at University helped me have better practical thinking, other than just being a creative mind. ”
Quan: “I applied for entry into some universities to study marketing but then ended up with doing English Language in a private university. My exam result were too low to get into any of the state owned ones. My goal was to be a teacher!”
Duc: “I tried many different things in graphic design, from illustration for books, layout for magazines to animation and video editing. After a few years of working for advertising companies, I still felt something was missing. I quit my job a few months after a long trip to Japan to spend some time to figure out what to do next. For months I just wandered around and used my camera to capture candid moments I encountered in the city. It grew on me, and I found a passion for street photography. Then I wanted to learn more about different cultures, to experience new things, to tell visual stories, etc. That's when I teamed up with Ted (Quan) to start our travel blog and used our own savings for new adventures. We also learned how to shoot videos for the internet and finally, my little knowledge for editing at the time in advertising agencies had room to grow.”
Quan: “I have never thought that I already “got” into this industry. None of us studied professional filming though Duc has had a creative background. We have just done whatever we love to do first and built up gradually through the gears to have better quality video to share our emotions, and stories during our trips together.”
Duc: “Back to when I decided to study Graphic Design, my parents had no idea until I got my first job in a small boutique making creative stationaries. It was not easy to explain what precisely the creative industry was to my parents let alone everyone else. Sometimes they thought what I did was merely making advertising signs for street shops. They expected me to graduate from university and then get into a big company, having a stable job. And you can imagine how confused they were when I, again, quit the advertising company where I had a rather good salary. Until now, whenever I tell them I go travel, they always worry and ask if I was able to make money out of wandering from place to place.”
Quan: “My parents actually have no idea of “creative.” But I am quite sure that they are going to support whatever their kids would like to do if we feel happy.”
Duc: “When I first started with street photography, I studied a lot of work from famous photographers and tried to mimic them. But I never felt satisfied when my photos never reached their level. There were many times I thought of giving up until I accidentally ran into a documentary about Vivian Maier. Please watch it or at least read more about this incredible woman! She was a talented but eccentric photographer, whose work had never been discovered until she died. The Rolleicord camera was always with her when she worked as a nanny most of her life. Photography for her was the enjoyment of capturing what she saw every day, and that's enough. It dawned on me that I don't need to mimic anyone and yearn for fame. She inspired me to keep on following my passion for telling visual stories.”
When it comes to video editing, I really admire the work of Cee-Roo. His video about Kenya is a masterpiece, beautifully done and an excellent job of using sound to control people's feeling. I try to study his skill but also find my own style. I think taking photos helps me with composing in videos and making videos even in return helps my photography skill much better.”
Duc: “My very first job was to work as a waiter in a small coffee shop in a tourist street in Saigon. My first job in the creative field was to work as a graphic designer for a small boutique shop. I created the product design for stationaries like notebooks, photo frames, birthday cards, etc. Talking about a creative project in general, I got paid $120 for creating a logo for a flower shop. It's been six years since, and fortunately, the shop is still using that logo and in great business!”
“We never got paid for our travel projects until the recent project about Hue, the center part of Vietnam. It's more about a sponsor and co-operating. This project is exciting as Hue is the place we always wanted to visit again and make a video for this beautiful land. We've been working hard on this. Hope to finish and publish it soon this May.”
“To be honest, I still struggle to balance passion and earning for a living. With photography, I want to follow what I love, street life/documentary, but here in Vietnam you don't make much money with it. At the same time, the direction of our travel blog content (photos, articles, videos, etc.) is for smaller audiences, not about showing beautiful spots for people to come to check out but more about people and culture, which is not something easy to draw the majority of the younger audience. We are planning to find ways to balance our content to educate and make it more attractive, such as combine travel video with documentary and check-in photos with street-life photos, etc.”
“We are planning to visit more exciting places like India, Iran, etc. And also making time for our project about discovering and documenting festivals around the world and our country. We want to combine cinematic travel videos with documentary to give more informative content. Other than that, we are open to any chance to work with people and organization on exciting projects.”
Quan: “We are not the fortune teller lol. But if I may target, I just wish we could inspire people to travel to new places, meet new people, and learn new things rather than just to “check in”.”