“There tends to be an emphasis on suffering, and while that can be effective in bringing about some sort of policy change at times, it often perpetuates feelings of distance or otherness, and diminishes a person’s humanity to some sort of tabloid headline.”Ĭaleb’s background is unsurprisingly creative. “Often these subjects – like the aftermath of a war or small post-industrial American towns – are dealt with in a heavy-handed sort of way,” continues Caleb. Many of the images were taken during the workshop, with drawings and photographs in sight of the camera on bedroom walls. Highly emotive and rooted in history, Long Time No See took two years to complete and it’s clear to see why. Achieved by incorporating drawings and paintings created by the teenagers at Làng Hữu Nghị, plus a video collaboration with the veterans – “we worked with them to co-direct dreamlike vignettes that explore their memories and desires, and our personal responses to them.” “We focused on breaking down the rigid divide between subject and author,” he tells It’s Nice That. Since then, up until last month, Caleb was based in Hanoi, Vietnam, where he was working on his project Long Time No See, alongside his wife and video artist Andrea Orejarena.Īn exploration into the “memory and legacy” of the Vietnam-American war, this series sees the photographer and filmmaker collaborate with Vietnamese veterans who were directly affected by Agent Orange (a military chemical) – plus their younger descendants.
Last summer, Caleb Stein’s four-year documentation of the small American town of Poughkeepsie enlightened us with his ability to share the intimate and immersive stories of his subjects.
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