Interview with Future Rising Fellow Alex Nguyen 

Alex Nguyen is a 24 year old photojournalist, born in a town of the central highlands of Vietnam called Kon Tum. Currently, she is based in Hue, the central part of Vietnam. She attended university in Ho Chi Minh, where she learned about journalism but then took a gap year. She developed a passion for alternative education and sustainability during her gap year by living in various communities, including minority groups and sustainable communities.

That living experience during her work and travels has inspired her Future Rising photo essay on the lives and work of girls from Vietnam's underprivileged groups who live in climate-vulnerable communities. Alex has learned to embrace alternative forms of storytelling in order to tell stronger stories as a result of the Fellowship program. She has been inspired by the girls and the communities she has lived with as part of her project, and she also believes that her dreams of being a photojournalist are coming true.

Where are you from? And where did you grow up?

I am Alex Nguyen, and I come from Vietnam. I have traveled a lot but where I grew up is a small town in the central highlands of Vietnam. It's called Kon Tum, and while it's not well-known on the traveler's map, it's quite lovely and unique.

Where did you go to school?

From primary school until high school, I attended schools in my hometown. Following that, I moved to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's largest city, to continue my higher education. I chose to study journalism at the time, but I then took a gap year to travel and learn about sustainability.

I also had the opportunity to travel and live among minority groups during that time, and I tried to learn about different ways of living. This experience provided me with new perspectives on the world we live in and I try to communicate these stories through photography and journalism. I would love to grow as a photojournalist who can travel and immerse myself in living with different groups whose stories are unreported and overlooked.  Those people will teach us a lot. I would love to uncover their stories and discover the beauty of their lives as well as the beauty of their wisdom.

How does that connect to the work you are doing in your Future Rising Fellowship project?

My project focuses on presenting the stories of girls from underrepresented groups who have been affected by climate change.

What do you find most interesting or useful about the Fellowship?

I really like the workshops in the Fellowship because they teach me how to tell stories in a better and more effective ways. The most interesting thing about the fellowship is that I can discover myself through practicing and doing experiments. Before the Fellowship I planned to use traditional storytelling methods, but during the Fellowship, after getting advice from the workshop and the people I met, I have changed my mind and learned that it is great to try new things such as the combination between sounds, photographs and stories. So i am going to create an interactive multimedia story that combines these things. 

It has also been a chance for me to understand more about the girls I work with. I am also a girl, but sometimes there are girls and their inspiring stories that I had no idea about before, so I feel very moved by getting to meet them, live with them and tell their story.