Street Photography – Sharpen The Knives

I met a knife sharpen man in front of the K26 apartment, Go Vap district in May, 2016. At the first time, I was quite afraid of him, because he was with a lot of knives, and who knew what kind of person he was. However, when he looked straight to me and smile at me, I knew he was a good man. He was 36 years old. He was from the central of Vietnam (Quang Nam province maybe), and he came to Saigon about 8 years ago to earn for a living. After trying many kind of jobs, he became a knife sharpen street vendor.

He allowed me to take pictures of him, however, he didn’t want me to post the photos to Facebook. The reason was simple, no one in his hometown knew his current job. He wanted them to think that he was a success man in Ho Chi Minh city (Saigon). Like other street vendors that came to Ho Chi Minh city, he didn’t want to show how hard he earn money in Saigon. He would tell his relatives a different story, where he was a successful man and had a better job.

He was married a year ago, and he had a child. He told me that it was hard to create a new baby born than the past. So he told me to plan to have a baby as soon as possible. I really wish him to have a better life and his family will always be happy. God bless him!