In the early 1990s, before the United States sanctions against Vietnam were lifted, I spent a summer in Hanoi, on a research visa. That summer I created the collage series “From the Streets of Hanoi.” I began traveling to Vietnam while in graduate school because my husband, Robert K. Brigham, is a scholar of the American War. He is now the Shirley Ecker Boskey Professor of History and International Relations at Vassar College. Since that initial trip I have been back to Vietnam many times, several times to photograph conferences like, “Missed Opportunities? Former U.S. and Vietnamese Leaders Reexamine the Vietnam War (1961-1968),” a critical oral history project sponsored by the Center for Foreign Policy Development and the Watson Institute at Brown University. In 1996, I co-led Vassar’s International Studies trip- the first and largest student group at the time to travel through the country, 44 students for 18 days. In 2018 and 2025, I returned to Vietnam, as a co-leader for Vassar College’s Travel Program, guiding an alumni group through the country. As I have travelled back, Vietnam has continued to inform some of my work. What began as photographing diplomacy conferences and leading student/alum groups, has slowly turned into capturing moments about the rapid growth and transformation of Vietnam’s streets, people, and culture.