On an early weekend morning in late January, Bui Nguyen Van Nguyen sat down for a cup of coffee at Ba Lu, one of Saigon’s oldest cafés, located smack in the middle of Phung Hung Market in District 5. After taking a sip of coffee brewed in the traditional net-filter method, Nguyen began snapping photographs of the market, cataloguing the simple beauty of everyday life in Saigon. Such moments are typical for Nguyen who, for the past three years, has spent his time wandering around Saigon, capturing life through the perspective of his lens. Saigon 'enthusiast' Nguyen’s love of Saigon is shown to the 106,000 followers of his Instagram account @odaucungchup , which translates to 'taking photos everywhere.' “It makes me happy that every day I get to wake up and realize I am in the heart of Saigon,” Nguyen told Tuoi Tre News . Saigon at sunset. Photo: @odaucungchup Nguyen’s goal is to showcase simple, familiar images of Saigon, from its narrow alleyways to its street corners covered in tangled electric wires, and everything in between. Building his Instagram handle a place for Saigon lovers, he wrote upon his bio, “Do you guys love Saigon like me?” Besides randomly taking photos of city life in a wide range of topics, Nguyen has also run several long-term series, including Saigon Old Texts, Saigon Houses, Saigon Alleys, Saigon Cinemas, Saigon People, Patterns of Saigon, and more. A photo from Bui Nguyen Van Nguyen’s Saigon Old Texts photo series “I’m always attracted to shops with nice old-school signs when I need to buy or repair things because I truly believe that the people in those places put love and kindness into their work,” Nguyen captioned a series depicting store signage. The 29-year-old photographer also uploads the story behind each photo, describing his feelings about it or what he has learned of the area where the picture was taken. “Each time I stop at my regular banh mi [ Vietnamese …
