:PROFILE [image:https://slatesource-media.s3.amazonaws.com/5/4/3/5433833c-f224-46b0-a3af-de275d8424c4.webp?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20260717T200704Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Credential=AKIA6PWPI77XKVCG2MNW%2F20260717%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz-Signature=c78228c56688547089a9246e9acfee17c0b74c7f0a367ec1bc5a38d8386fabfe]
Sara Chen
Singapore
Photographer. Fourteen rolls of 35mm across eight cities. I do not shoot digital on personal trips.
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:IMAGE
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:QUOTE [quotetype:personal, subtitle:Sara Chen]
I came here to make photographs. It took eight weeks to understand that the photographs were the least important thing happening.
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:TIMELINE
Eight Weeks, Eight Cities
2024-01-08 | Bangkok. Arrived already knowing the city. That was the mistake. Familiarity is not the same as attention. Spent three days unlearning what I thought I knew.
2024-01-15 | Pai. Three hundred curves on the road up from Chiang Mai. No phone signal for two days. Found out what I photograph when there is no one watching.
2024-01-22 | Luang Prabang. Woke at 4am every morning for a week to watch the alms giving. Never once raised the camera. Some things photograph better as memory.
2024-02-01 | Phong Nali. A guesthouse with twelve rooms and one light bulb per floor. Sat on the porch for four evenings watching the Mekong run. Did not move.
2024-02-09 | Hanoi. Shot two full rolls on the first day and hated every frame. Shot nothing on the second. The third day got the one photograph I came for.
2024-02-18 | Hoi An. Yellow walls. Every photographer has been here. I went anyway and found the alley everyone else had missed, two streets behind the famous one.
2024-02-27 | Kampot. River, pepper plantations, no agenda. Stayed eleven days instead of three. The best travel decision I have made in years.
2024-03-10 | Koh Rong. Last island. Water so clear you can see the shadow of your hand on the sand four metres down. Finished the last roll. Flew home empty and full at the same time.
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:MAP
13.7563,100.5018,Bangkok [PLANE]
19.052,98.438,Pai [FOOT]
19.8836,102.1347,Luang Prabang [FOOT]
18.1188,103.6417,Phong Nali [FOOT]
21.0285,105.8542,Hanoi [FOOT]
15.88,108.338,Hoi An [FOOT]
10.6177,104.18,Kampot [FOOT]
10.7328,103.2738,Koh Rong [PLANE]
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:STATS

:NOTE.half
Pai is worth the nausea. Rent a scooter the morning after you arrive, not the day of. The road north of town before 7am is yours.
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:NOTE.half
Kampot has no landmark. That is the point. Give it more days than you planned. The pepper farms thirty minutes out are empty on weekday mornings.


:LINK
https://www.filmisnotdead.com
Film Is Not Dead — resources for 35mm travel