Streets & Stories 015 — Featured Photographer

Luke Neville

  1. 01The work
  2. 02Who runs it
  3. 03The Southern Photo Club
  4. 04Free to join

Street photography is better in company.

Based in
Saigon
Works in
Street & documentary
Focus
The Southern Photo Club
Streets & Stories
Issue 015
A bride and groom stand among the fish basins of a Saigon wet market — photograph by Luke Neville
01A bride and groom stand among the fish basins of a Saigon wet market
01 — The work

A decade of Saigon mornings

Luke photographs the city where it collides with itself — a wedding in a wet market, graduation caps over City Hall, riggers under Landmark 81. From his feature, A Communal Affair.

Three men stand at a night food stall, their figures softened by a scratched sheet of hanging plastic — Luke Neville
02A night stall behind a scratched sheet of plastic — from Thirty Five, his first solo show.

Photography is at its most powerful when it becomes a communal affair.

From his feature — Streets & Stories 015
Two women in conical hats sit behind baskets of limes, chilies and herbs at a covered market — Luke Neville
03Two women in conical hats sit behind baskets of limes, chilies and herbs at a covered market
A man on a scooter passes a framing shop, caught inside a gilded mirror leaning at the curb — Luke Neville
04A man on a scooter passes a framing shop, caught inside a gilded mirror leaning at the curb
A barefoot man in red climbs the ornate ironwork of a colonial palace gate — Luke Neville
05A barefoot man in red climbs the ornate ironwork of a colonial palace gate
Graduates in red and black gowns throw their caps into the sky in front of Saigon's City Hall — Luke Neville
06Graduates in red and black gowns throw their caps into the sky in front of Saigon's City Hall
Two riggers hoist scaffold poles at dusk, silhouetted against Landmark 81 and the Saigon skyline — Luke Neville
07Two riggers hoist scaffold poles at dusk, silhouetted against Landmark 81 and the Saigon skyline
Two women in pastel ao dai pose beside a watermelon stall while a vendor in a floral conical hat looks toward the camera — Luke Neville
08Two women in pastel ao dai pose beside a watermelon stall while a vendor in a floral conical hat looks toward the camera
Seen from above, boys play football on a painted court as a woman in a conical hat rides past on a motorbike — Luke Neville
09Seen from above, boys play football on a painted court as a woman in a conical hat rides past on a motorbike
A golden conical hat glows in the gap between the dark canopies of market umbrellas — Luke Neville
10A golden conical hat glows in the gap between the dark canopies of market umbrellas
A heap of yellow lion dance costumes rests on the temple floor, performers' sneakers poking out beneath the fur — Luke Neville
11A heap of yellow lion dance costumes rests on the temple floor, performers' sneakers poking out beneath the fur
02 — Who runs it

Who you'd be walking with

Portrait of photographer Luke Neville

Luke is a British street and documentary photographer who has made Ho Chi Minh City his home. He was eighteen and on his first trip to Asia when his father handed him a film camera; he pointed it at Saigon, and came back years later to stay. He teaches during the week, shoots commercially through his agency Vietnam Visuals, and has spent the last five years building the Southern Photo Club into the city's standing invitation to shoot together.

In September 2025 he hung Thirty Five, his first solo show, at Ô Creative Space in Bình Thạnh — the title a double exposure of the 35mm frame he shoots and the birthday he was marking. Instead of taking presents, he gave the work to the city.

Read more: Saucefish on “Thirty Five”.

03 — The Southern Photo Club

You don't have to shoot alone

Street photography has a reputation as solitary work, and the Southern Photo Club is five years of evidence against it. It is a predominantly offline community in Saigon — people who rise early on Sunday mornings, walk the city together, and find out afterwards how differently each of them saw the same hour. Luke calls them street dwellers, and says the club exists to make street photography accessible.

The shape of it
  • Free to join
  • Five years running
  • Sunday mornings, early
  • Saigon
  • 01

    Photowalks

    The heart of it. An early start, a group, and a few hours of the city before it gets going. You go home with your own pictures and a sense of what everyone else found in the same streets.

  • 02

    Workshops

    For members who want to push past turning up. Luke teaches for a living, and the club is where that goes when it isn't a classroom.

  • 03

    Galleries

    Work that gets made together should get seen together. The club puts photographs on walls — the same scene that produced Thirty Five.

  • 04

    Events

    The social half — meets and gatherings that keep a group of photographers a group rather than a follower count.

The club describes its own walks as free community events, which makes newer photographers the point rather than a tolerated extra.

04 — Free to join

Turn up on Sunday

Walks, workshops and shows are announced on the club's own channels. Introduce yourself and someone will tell you where the next one starts.

The Southern Photo Club is run independently by Luke Neville. Vietnam Streets features him as a community photographer and doesn't organise the walks.

Next — Streets & Stories 016

Adrien Jean

Street photograph of Saigon by Adrien Jean
Photographs © Luke Neville Read Streets & Stories 015 →