asialife HCMC 1 - AsiaLIFE Magazine

On the Face of It
Photos by Miguel Lopez
Miguel Lopez’s portraits—taken
during the course of his travels
within Vietnam, Malaysia and
Thailand—vividly capture the
universality of the human spirit
in all its goodness. “Photography
is for me all about people,”
he says. “When you are a long
way from home on travel assignments,
it is impossible not to
engage with the human being,
his/her expressions, looks, behaviours.
It kind of reminds me
that we are here just for a little
while, that every photograph
keeps the human alive forever,
perhaps it is the only way to be
immortal.”
On these pages, Lopez
captured images that he wanted
immortalised: of children who
followed him around in a
narrow street behind Cholon
market, of travellers in Bangkok’s
train station, of rickshaw
drivers in Malacca, of people in
camps outside Cu Chi. All these
“ordinary people” had faces that
told stories of their hardships
and hope for the future—and
they smiled throughout it all,
which is how they will always
be remembered.
20 asialife HCMC