Andrew Gifford
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andrewgiffordphoto.bsky.social
Andrew Gifford
@andrewgiffordphoto.bsky.social
3K followers 1.3K following 3.2K posts
Hello, welcome :)

This Invisible Illness: my first long form documentary photography project, about ME/CFS a complex & challenging health condition - like Long Covid.

https://linktr.ee/andrewgifford.photography

Bristol, UK. 335.42 ppm. He/him/oi.
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andrewgiffordphoto.bsky.social
Photo from a while ago: south west China

I wish I'd invited her to practice her spoken English with me. I would have welcomed a few phrases in return.

#Photography
Colour photo made over the shoulder of a 20-ish years old female Chinese citizen standing beside the Li River in Guilin, which appears on many banknotes. It's a cold misty morning, the karst hills just visible through the murk. She's wearing a black sports jacket and a delicately patterned white shirt beneath. She's reading aloud, following audio from a dictation recorder. This audio mirrors the well-worn and annotated printed statement she is holding, outlinging her studies in mechanical engineering and determination to improve her spoken English and progress into an exciting new world.
December 8, 2025 at 12:08 PM
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Photo from a while ago: south west China

Runoff water from the karst formations that appear on chinese paper money notes.

#Photography
Colour photo of a slow moving stream at the edge of town in bright but overcast morning light, where the reflection of a karst formation rock hill reaches forwards and downwards into a soft point in the centre of the stream. This reflection enables us to see into the clear water and the rich green algae and weed submerged. The stream is lined with domestic housing on each side, brick constructions on top of hand made stone-lined walls. Some are clad and painted a buff grey or yellow, others have exposed brick. Bright green vegetation is established along the margins of the water and a willow in the background is coming into its new spring growth.
December 3, 2025 at 10:47 AM
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Photo from a while ago: north Vietnam

Circa two thousand rivers and canals means much of life and transportaton happens around water and boats.

#Photography
Colour photo of an engine-powered wooden hull boat moored at a sloped concrete dock in bright soft morning sun. We're looking at an estuary river which runs a rich brown-grey from the fertile lands upstream. The boat is laden with supplies, being unloaded be three adult Vietnamese people, two male one female, peharps two of whom own a store in a nearby town. The boat has a teal green wooden cabin, with a new green mattress balanced on top. Its cargo is a mix of cardboard boxes, crates and sacks. There's also a colourful mix of toys, balls and other packages - yellows, blues, oranges, greens. The woman is carefully stepping down the wooden gangway, carrying two bright orange boxes ashore. Moored beside this is a flotilla of docked boats and floating crafts, some to be used as floating trollies. These are adorned with brightly coloured plastic tarps in blue and orange, with fluttering flags also of blue, orange, red and yellow. Across the river are some huts - white and teal - and other moored craft, similarly covered with blue plastic tarp. It's an everyday scene, with beauty through a rich harmony of colours and life.
November 30, 2025 at 9:26 AM
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Photo from a while ago: north Vietnam

I felt I'd found the 'real' Vietnam. I knew better than to be chasing icons, but I still got a thrill from moments like this. I wonder how differently I'd approach things now.

#Photography
Colour photo of 50-something male Vietnamese rice farmer/worker hand planting rice in the rich clay water that is up to his knees. He's wearing a traditional conical straw hat, a red shirt that's faded by the strong sun, and burgandy waders, which are caked in grey mud. He's stooping to carefully place by hand in neat rows individual young rice plants, which have a rich yellow-brown colour root and verdent green grassy leaves. The field stretches around him for about five acres, its water enclosed by low clay boundary walls/paths that retain the water. In the background is a white and blue brick walled hut, likely a toilet or store and behind this rolling cast hills covered in vegetation.
November 29, 2025 at 10:57 AM
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Photo from a while ago: Hanoi, Vietnam

Street vendor of barbering and ear de-clagging services. He had a fair queue.

#Photography
Colour photo of a skilled 40-something Vietnamese male carefully removing the ear wax of his 30-something Vietnamese male client. This is a street vendor, who has an integrated collapsable chair-workbench-mirror unit made of wood, likely by himself. The client's reflection is visible in the mirror, enjoying a moment of calm in the hands of an expert practitioner. The vendor has set up shop on a quiet side street and brought an air of calm. He's sitting on a teal-green chair, wears pale orange long sleeve shirt and beige trousers. A head torch illuminates his precision moves, while passers-by pass by in the mirror's reflection behind.
November 28, 2025 at 10:56 AM
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Photo from a while ago: Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

Floating fish farming and fishing village.

#Photography
Colour photo made on the water, of a large floating village construction - made of plastic barrels, wood and nets. There's two dozen wooden huts/homes, each with a netted fish raising pen, for the owner/staff to stay or live in while raising the crop and fishing locally. The huts are painted any combination of blues, greens, oranges, echoing the bright yellow-orange plastic canoes that are moored neatly. A haze hangs in the air. The cast rocks of Ha Long Bay tower above the village, a verdent green. Looking closely, we can make out people going about their chores and trade, dogs, signs of life.
November 27, 2025 at 7:35 AM
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Photo from a while ago: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

"For the future of our children" (I think). I'd love to know what this scene is about.

#Photography
Colour photo of an adult 40-something male hand painting a slogan onto the drab grey wall of a three storey residential building. He's on a green step ladder, painting with green paint. Two friends or colleagues watch on, one seated on the ground onestanding, waiting to take a photo. To their right is the blue awning and blue plastic chairs of a cafe/bar. To their left is an open door and what looks like a bicycle repair mechanics workspace, fur to a few used wheel rims leaning against the wall. The scene feels staged, as if a theater set. Two trees lean in from either side, helping frame the careful brushwork of the man's lettering.
November 26, 2025 at 11:21 AM
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Photo from a while ago: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Recycling collection, with time to chat.

#Photography
Colour photo made in a quiet back street in a residential area of the city. A bicycle is leaned against a stone wall, which is green-grey from the damp air. It is laden with collected domestic recyling - colourful sheets of cardboard, plastic, a sack of something soft perhaps paper or plastic bags or clothing and a faded red hard plastic tote full of items. The street is perhaps 2m wide, lined with houses, each with a balcony from which clothing and belongings hang. In the middle distance the recycling collector chats with an occupant, perhaps having become friends over the years. She is wearing a conical hat and a green long sleeve jacket. At the end of the street a young mother feeds her kid from a bowl, while he sits on a moped seat. A tree leans in overhead, offering a little shade. Washing hangs out to dry at street level, quite safe from being stolen. The drying puddle on the floor suggests someone has recently scrubbed out their yard into the street.
November 25, 2025 at 11:22 AM
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Photo from a while ago: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Nearby a week-long 24*7 funeral/wake was happening, with traditional music played at volume from loudspeakers, not 20m from where I tried to sleep. This family of neighbours were bemused by my trying to grasp it all.

#Photography
Colour photo of a Vietnamese family, who are seated on dark brown plastic chairs at the side of a path beneath a black tarpaulin. Mum is mid-40's, wearing a light blue patterned trouser suit. Her kids are perhaps 12 years old, five and 18 months, wearing a mix of whites, pints greys and navy. Mum holds the youngest on her lap, while smiling patiently. The older boy is reassuring his five year old sister who is a little unsure of being photo'd by a stranger and who would much rather play with her red inflatable ball. Beside them is the front wheel of a stationary motorbike, perhaps their main mode of urban transport.
November 24, 2025 at 11:40 AM
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Photo from a while ago - Angkor Wat, Cambodia

The colour of this stonemason's block suggests the whole complex was once a much brighter off-white colour, before the seasons and fertile life brought it to the dark greys and greens we see now.

#Photography
Colour photo of a 1.5m square block of newly cut and freshly chisled stone, which will be shaped and installed as part of the temple repair. The stonemason isn't in the frame, but their tools suggest they will return shortly - extension cord, electric sander, electric cutter, brush - lay around. Two wooden benches sit unoccupied alongside. This work space is in the cool of the edge of the jungle, where bright dappled light shows a finished stone block in the midground and, in the distance, a stand of dozens of unfinished blocks awaiting duty.
November 23, 2025 at 9:37 AM
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Photo from a while ago - nr Siem Reap, Cambodia

This store appeared to run on an honesty box scheme, while the owner wasn't around selling mainly to neighbours.

#Photography
Colour photo made late afternoon along a raised roadway (above a wetland/delta) lined by homes on stilts. These are made of colourfully painted timber - blues, oranges, greens, reds - and with rusting corugated steel roofs. A perhaps eight year old Cambodian boy stands barefoot in shorts and t-shirt pondering something in his hand, perhaps something from the village store that we can see inside, offering drinks, sweets and non perishable grovercies, or perhaps a wallet containing just enough for a small treat.
November 22, 2025 at 10:53 AM
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Photo from a while ago - nr Siem Reap, Cambodia

Wasn't sure if it was his or his family's food cart, heading home after doing the rounds.

#Photography
Colour photo of a 10-ish year old Cambodian boy wearing khaki trousers and a plaid shirt, pushing a two wheeled food cart along a tarmac'd road in soft early evening light. The golden light and hazy sky soften the rolling hills and grassland around him, there's a white wooden home on stilts in the background. The cart is well worn, rusting in parts from the humid seasons and has a green umbrella attached to offer shade from the full sun. The boy is strolling along at a fair pace, looking to us as he completes his chores for the day.
November 21, 2025 at 9:37 AM
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Photo from a while ago - nr Siem Reap, Cambodia

The evening round of drinking water delivery, just a short distance from the city's amenities.

#Photography
Colour photo made during mid evening as a warm sun sets softly far beneth a hazy sky. A 40-something Cambodian citizen male is carrying a hefty 25L plastic container of drinking water on his shoulder to a home on stilts that line the road along delta backwaters. He has already carried it a short distance from his moped-pulled cart, which is now half empty from deliveries on his evening round. In the mid ground are other homes on stilts, some with metal sheet roofs others with plastic tarpaulin.
November 20, 2025 at 10:20 AM
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Photo from a while ago - Siem Reap, Cambodia

All domestic needs catered for at the covered market.

#Photography
Colour photo of female 40-something Cambodian citizen at work, providing seamstress services in the covered market. She's ironing a customer's repaired shirt on her wrought iron wood-topped work bench, clad with a black vintage Singer sowing machine. Surrounding her small corner plot hang a motionless wall-mounted fan and a small array of shirts and trousers at various stages of repair hang from hooks and hangers.
November 19, 2025 at 10:20 AM
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Photo from a while ago - Siem Reap, Cambodia

Volleyball and kickvolly are second only to football in sports popularity.

#Photography
Colour photo of a stony and dusty pitch at the foot of stepp rocky hills, where a net is strung between tall wooden sticks, likely for the local team's practice and informal games. There's a wooden hut, lightly graffiti'd, probably housing kit and paraphenalia. A lone adult male Cambodian citizen is cutting across the silent and empty pitch, heading home after a mid week day's work.
November 18, 2025 at 11:05 AM
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Photo from a while ago - Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Bloody steep, in parts.

#Photography
Colour photo made at ground level looking back at a dozen tourists gingerly making their way down a 20m flight stone steps that are at an approx 50-60 angle. (In some parts, the steps were 70 degrees, but we're not allowed on those). Each person is at a different stage, including in abillity and confidence, almost all are thinking "It's true, much harder to get down than up".
November 17, 2025 at 1:10 PM
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Photo from a while ago - Siem Reap, Cambodia

It's your classic local food market scene.

#Photography
Colour photo made inside the covered food market at Siem Reap. Bright early afternoon sunlight lights up a a veg, fruit and veg seller's open table-top stall, causing the bright colours of her wares to pop in bright greens, reds and golden yellows. A perhaps 10 years old Cambodian girl exchanges paper money for fruit with the adult female 40-something Cambodian store owner. All around are other open table top stalls selling colourful fruits and, around the edges of the market, are crafts people offering services around domestic necessity.
November 16, 2025 at 10:09 AM
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Photo from a while ago - Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Vast buddhist temple reclaimed by inherrently-Zen nature.

#Photography
Colour photo looking out through a tall stone doorway, where large fallen stones and soaring Eucalyptus trees have formed an accidentally/naturally/ineherrently Zen framing of the tree's white trunk. The jungle is lush green, full of life, renewel and fertility - mocking the xenophobic hate of the Khmer Rouge's genocidal sprees of destruction.
November 15, 2025 at 11:36 AM
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Photo from a while ago - northern Thailand

If I could speak elephant, I bet I'd hear some right stories.

#Photography
Colour photo of an elephant's eye, made at a genuinely-ethical-and-caring sanctuary. We're looking up from standing level across the left hand cheek, where the contours of its face and head roll and undulate like hilly terrain. Its chocolate-brown eye is clear and bright, cast into the distance, as if remembering friends and adventures.
November 14, 2025 at 10:52 AM
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Sure, Angkor Wat's interesting and all that, but this is how it feels:
Colour photo of a tall, pale, broad shouldered but slightly podgy 50-something white Western male standing in cargo shorts and t-shirt atop a high flat temple platform, with his adult male Cambodian guide in long trousers and long sleeve shirt. Western guy has a very sweaty back (sack and crack) and head, but listens intently as history is dilligently told, while secretely fantasising about a lemonade and then a long cold shower.
November 13, 2025 at 11:22 AM
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Photo from a while ago - Angkor Wat, Cambodia

A quiet corner where not so many tourists tread.

#Photography
Colour photo of a single flowering plant that's growing in the crack between the paving stones and stone walls, which are a rich brown-grey colour and covered with deep green lichens. The petals are a pale pink with deep green heart shaped leaves, it has self-seeded from the rich fertile forests that try to encroach the temple site.
November 13, 2025 at 10:31 AM
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Photo from a while ago - northern Thailand

I wondered what called them away from their laundry to attend.

#Photography
Colour photo of a clear stream running through lush lowland as the cool of the morning gives way to the warmth of the day. Two simple bridges cross the stream, both made with bamboo. The smaller, lower, bridge without a handrail is doubling as a platform upon which to do the laundry by hand. There's two white buckets containing garments, one dirty one clean, and a grey bowl, two scrubbing brushes and a garment that lays awaiting the completion of its wash.
November 12, 2025 at 11:06 AM
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Photo from a while ago - Angkor Wat, Cambodia

This burned where a diety statue had been beheaded, toppled.

#Photography
A single candle burns on a stone plinth where a diety once stood, removed during the Khmer Rouge xenophobic genocide. It's leafy flame glows rich orange-yellow reaching well above the repurposed aluminium food tin that holds its fuel, blackened from regular use. The plinth is thickly coated with dribbles of bright red and yellow wax, plus ash, from many years' offerings.
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
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Photo from a while ago - northern Thailand

No idea which crop was being grown, but I liked the infinate space and light here.

#Photography
Colour photo made insite a vast plastic polytunnel which stretches into the distance. A lush green crop is getting established, fuelled by the rich brown earth. The scene is entirely covered by plastic sheeting overhead - glowing silver-blue-grey from the morning sun. This is all held up by an assortment of steel frame poles and reinforced by wooden stakes. Strung from the frames are many white light bulbs, which hang from cables every few meters and stretch into the distance. One worker can just about be made out in the middle distance, wearing rich red clothing under an umbrella to protect from the the UV and coming heat of the day.
November 10, 2025 at 7:48 AM
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Photo from a while ago - Bangkok Thailand

Pigeons never far away from the street food stalls, seeking crumbs or a drink.

#Photography
Colour photo on streets of central Bangkok. An unoccupied black plastic stool and four large plastic bowls - two blue, two black - each full of water for waste and cleaning. This has attracted two pigeones - one white and grey, the other a wood pigeon - which have flown down to peck around and perhaps have a drink. The background is a clutter of blue and grey mopeds and the front of a grey car. Beside the bowls is a white bottle containing yellow-ish cooking oil. The white and grey pigeon flaps its wings, steadying itself on the rim of the bowl before a drink of oily fragrant water from washed plates.
November 9, 2025 at 11:31 AM