I was once asked the [trick] question “What time of the day can there be no traffic in the entire world?” and I answered the ungodly hour of “3am-ish, when people are asleep.” Of course, the answer is never because traffic is really all about movement be it 1 vehicle or a gazillion vehicles on the road. And in Asia, the “gazillion vehicles on the road” is particularly true (which contributes to the traffic’s “lack of movement” in a matter of speaking) something we undoubtedly hate but put up with on the daily simply because… we’re used to it.
But despite the unavoidable congestion of automobiles that fill Asian streets, one photographer managed to capture “traffic” in all of its anarchy and danger and put it into nothing short of a work of art. Rob Whitworth, a Vietnam-based photographer from the UK gives us “Traffic in Frenetic HCMC” which features Ho Chi Minh City’s hustle and bustle. Using time lapse and over 10,000 individual 16.2-megapixel RAW images captured on Nikon DSLR cameras, the film showcases the speed and “life” of the city.
I’m wondering if we were to feature Manila traffic… we’d definitely need more that 10,000 images and a whole lot of time to lapse.
Traffic in Frenetic HCMC, Vietnam from Rob Whitworth on Vimeo.