Hanh old - Pieter Janssen Fine Art Photography

Hanh, one of the many old Vietnamese women who collect garbage for money.

portrait of a Vietnamese woman who collects garbage

Every day she would go out to search for empty bottles, cans, and cardboard. Anything that could be sold carried a small weight of value. A full sack might reach ten kilos, worth no more than three or four euros.

She lived in a single room. A bed stood against one wall; the rest of the space was filled with large bags of collected empties. A few years earlier her husband had died, and his bed had quietly been replaced by more sacks.

Vietnamese woman collecting empty bottles

Today she collected a lot.

I would see her from time to time, in heat or rain, her eyes fixed on the pavement, scanning for something useful.

Vietnamese woman searching for anything of value

During my photo tours in Hoi An, our meetings followed a familiar ritual. She would approach, extend her hand, and ask for money. I would give her something, and only then would she allow the photographs. Once the money changed hands, her face softened, and she often laughed out loud.

Altar for remembering old Vietnamese woman

In September 2021, I went to visit her, bringing a large bag of empty bottles. I was told she had died two days earlier, at the age of eighty-nine.

The room had been cleared. Where the sacks once stood, there was now a large altar, quietly marking her absence.