Alden giv­ing Grand­pa Ngat, 90, his photo.

360 Nomad

Hey, I’m Alden Ander­son (360 Nomad). Pho­tog­ra­phy is a means to doc­u­ment my inter­ests in His­to­ry and Cul­tur­al Anthro­pol­o­gy. I’m cur­rent­ly trav­el­ing in SE Asia. Amongst oth­er projects, I am work­ing to doc­u­ment the 54 Eth­nic Groups of Viet­nam through per­son­al sto­ries and por­traits of peo­ple from each eth­nic group.

I worked in the Film and TV indus­try in Los Angles for about 10 years. In 2016 I left Los Ange­les to trav­el the world. I came to explore Viet­nam and even­tu­al­ly oth­er parts of SE Asia to pur­sue more in depth cul­tur­al pho­tog­ra­phy projects.. 

Viet­nam The Peo­ple is a sto­ry-dri­ven cul­tur­al pho­tog­ra­phy project to doc­u­ment the peo­ple and the beau­ty of Viet­nam’s many eth­nic groups. We slow down and real­ly get­ting to know the peo­ple we meet and learn about their lives and cul­ture. Every pho­to is very per­son­al and has a sto­ry from the per­son in their own words.

In addi­tion to doc­u­ment­ing our mis­sion is to raise the aware­ness of the cul­tures and share it with Viet­nam and the world.

Inte­gral to “Viet­nam The Peo­ple” is giv­ing back and help­ing the peo­ple that we meet. We do this by print­ing and deliv­er­ing pho­tos, giv­ing peo­ple care pack­ages, food, cloth­ing, and/or finan­cial sup­port. It’s not a for-prof­it project and is most­ly self-fund­ed. Any dona­tions or mon­ey we receive from sell­ing prints go right back to the project and to the peo­ple. When we meet some­one who is in need we give what we can to help them, whether that’s food, sup­plies, clothes, med­i­cine, or finan­cial support.

Some exam­ples of this can be found on Insta­gram @360nomad. 

You can hear me dis­cuss Viet­nam The Peo­ple in an infor­mal Zoom discussion/presentaion below.