Finding the Beauty in the Process: Private Photography Workshops in Vietnam
Indigenous indigo dyeing in Lao Cai, Vietnam. Shot with a Leica M11 + Leica 50mm Summilux. All images copyright 2025 Justin Mott/Workshops by Justin Mott.
Private Photography Workshops in Vietnam for Story-Driven Photographers
One of my favorite things to photograph is the beauty of a process. As an assignment photographer, I’ve gone from country to country documenting how things are made, and since I’ve been based in Southeast Asia for nearly 20 years, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing so many fascinating processes.
It’s not the linear story that interests me most, the “this is how it starts, this is what happens next” kind of narrative. Photography lets you skip steps, focus on the beauty, and build a story through small sequences within a larger whole.
On a recent private photography workshop for a client from the UK, we headed north to the mountains of Lao Cai. While tourists visited villages staged for them, a few snaps here, some moments that feel authentic but are mostly built for their eyes and their cameras, we went deeper.
Indigenous indigo dyeing in Lao Cai, Vietnam. Shot with a Leica M11 + Leica 50mm Summilux. All images copyright 2025 Justin Mott/Workshops by Justin Mott.
Our local indigenous fixer, May, introduced me to her village, her friends, and her neighbors. My clients get a rare experience, not just with me, but through the access they’re given.
I tailor my private workshops to my students, but we tend to center everything around storytelling. I start with small exercises and place them in situations I might encounter on an assignment for a magazine. I show them how I approach a scene, a photograph, a story. From start to finish, I talk them through my thought process in real time, how I work a scene not just technically, but ethically and stylistically, from research to sequencing.
All images copyright 2025 Justin Mott/Workshops by Justin Mott.
I prep them with mini assignments, and while I’d love to share every detail, I keep certain things sacred. I spend a great deal of time building my curriculum for both small group and private workshops, and I believe what I do is genuinely unique. I’ve lived in Vietnam long enough to see my work copied by both local and foreign photographers, so that’s all I’ll reveal.
The real beauty, though, comes in the build up to the final assignment, learning to see the beauty of the process in everyday life.
For this student, we focused on a friend of our fixer May who’s known for indigo dyeing. We documented her as she moved through her day, telling a small, contained story in the time we had.
I showed my willing student how I approach a scene in harsh light, how I look for pockets of light to capture a single image or even a short sequence while she dries her indigo.
Indigenous indigo dyeing in Lao Cai, Vietnam. Shot with a Leica M11 + Leica 50mm Summilux. All images copyright 2025 Justin Mott/Workshops by Justin Mott.
When she moved indoors, we worked with the available natural light and made it work. I talked about how the naked eye can deceive you, especially when you’re working with a fast lens like a Leica 50mm Summilux, and how I can shoot an entire story on one lens. By slowing down and moving deliberately, you can find a wide range of compositions that still tell a complete story.
I work the scene and demonstrate my approach, then gradually step back and allow the student to work freely and begin telling the story in their own way. I show them how details help weave the story together but don’t just prove these details exist, photograph them with an artistic eye like the way afternoon sun cuts it way through while it’s hung to dry.
We review images daily, small bits on gear and technical but we mostly focus on theory, approach, and vision. I shoot with a Leica M but I could care less with what they shoot with. I want them to be comfortable and profiencet with their camera and that’s all and experience doesn’t matter as we can all grow and my students range from newbies to pros. I love to echo throughout the workshop that stories aren’t limited to photographers with extensive resume, we all start somewhere.
I don’t take shots for my students. I show them what I do and explain my how and why, but I leave plenty of space for them to experiment and start finding themselves. I encourage questions throughout and I love back and forth dialog.
All images copyright 2025 Justin Mott/Workshops by Justin Mott.
They won’t discover their full selves during my workshop, but the seed is planted that they need to, and that’s what I live to teach. Not how to shoot like me, but the importance of finding themselves.
If a private or small group workshop interests you, you can browse my latest offerings in Vietnam and beyond here. My private workshops aren’t cheap, but what I offer is something I believe is genuinely unique, shaped by nearly 20 years working as an assignment photographer and a real passion for sharing what I’ve learned.
All images below shot with a Leica M11 plus a Leica 50mm 1.4 Summilux close focusing version. All images copyright 2025 Justin Mott/Workshops by Justin Mott.
