Streets & Stories 017 — Featured Photographer

Dennis and Patrick Weinert

  1. 01The work
  2. 02Who they are
  3. 03See more of their work

The work nobody commissioned, made on film between the jobs that were.

Based in
Chiang Mai, Thailand
Works in
Street & documentary
Focus
Hà Giang on film
Streets & Stories
Issue 017
A boy in dark clothes leads a cow away from the livestock market on a slack rope, the crowd behind him paying no attention — Dennis and Patrick Weinert
01A boy in dark clothes leads a cow away from the livestock market on a slack rope, the crowd behind him paying no attention
01 — The work

A market that was never waiting to be discovered

Dennis and Patrick Weinert have spent a decade sharing one credit — writing, directing, shooting and cutting documentaries together for NDR, ARD, ZDF, 3sat, ARTE, Deutsche Welle and SRF. Hmong Life is the work that had no commission behind it.

It was there, they say, that they started experiment with analog photography and developed a deep appreciation for the country.

From their feature — Streets & Stories 017
A woman in a dark headwrap carrying a woven basket looks back over her shoulder in the crowd at the Mèo Vạc cattle market, tethered piglets lying on the ground behind her — Dennis and Patrick Weinert
02A woman in a dark headwrap carrying a woven basket looks back over her shoulder in the crowd at the Mèo Vạc cattle market, tethered piglets lying on the ground behind her
Buyers and sellers lean over piles of pomelo, bananas and green plums at the morning market, a man in a beret in the foreground — Dennis and Patrick Weinert
03Buyers and sellers lean over piles of pomelo, bananas and green plums at the morning market, a man in a beret in the foreground
Women in bright striped skirts hold the tethers of a cluster of black piglets on the ground; one takes a phone call, a large woven back-basket in the foreground — Dennis and Patrick Weinert
04Women in bright striped skirts hold the tethers of a cluster of black piglets on the ground; one takes a phone call, a large woven back-basket in the foreground
Men at the market appraise two roosters held upside down by the feet, a boy in a striped shirt watching from the side — Dennis and Patrick Weinert
05Men at the market appraise two roosters held upside down by the feet, a boy in a striped shirt watching from the side
A line of buyers stands behind a black cow at the livestock market, hills and tin roofs behind them — Dennis and Patrick Weinert
06A line of buyers stands behind a black cow at the livestock market, hills and tin roofs behind them
A young man in a white helmet rides away from the market with a full-grown pig lashed across the back of his motorbike — Dennis and Patrick Weinert
07A young man in a white helmet rides away from the market with a full-grown pig lashed across the back of his motorbike
A young woman in a red embroidered jacket stands with her hands on her hips beside a wheelbarrow and stacks of concrete blocks, a house going up behind her — Dennis and Patrick Weinert
08A young woman in a red embroidered jacket stands with her hands on her hips beside a wheelbarrow and stacks of concrete blocks, a house going up behind her
A woman in a red jacket turns mortar with a hoe while a girl in a pleated skirt, her arm in a sling, watches from beside a timber post — Dennis and Patrick Weinert
09A woman in a red jacket turns mortar with a hoe while a girl in a pleated skirt, her arm in a sling, watches from beside a timber post
A woman carries a whole timber beam on her shoulder along a concrete path, a woven basket on her back and a small child walking ahead with a bundle of sticks — Dennis and Patrick Weinert
10A woman carries a whole timber beam on her shoulder along a concrete path, a woven basket on her back and a small child walking ahead with a bundle of sticks
02 — Who they are

Two brothers, one credit

Portrait of photographer Dennis and Patrick Weinert

Dennis and Patrick Weinert are from Rheda-Wiedenbrück in western Germany, and they have worked as a single unit for about ten years — writing, directing, shooting and editing their documentaries together rather than dividing the roles between them.

They lived in Ho Chi Minh City from 2018 to 2021. That is when the film cameras came out. Hmong Life is four years of frames from the far north, made on their own time and to nobody's brief, which is the opposite of how the rest of their work gets made.

Their documentary work has been broadcast by NDR, ARD, ZDF, 3sat, ARTE, Deutsche Welle and SRF.

03 — See more of their work

Hmong Life, and everything before it

The photographs here are one part of a much longer body of work. Their own site carries the films; Instagram is where the frames appear first.

Vietnam Streets features Dennis and Patrick Weinert as a community photographer. We are not an agent and take no commission — everything here links straight to them.

Next — Streets & Stories 018

Jim Kerns

A woman on a scooter and a delivery rider with an orange cargo box pass one another in a dark stone alley — Jim Kerns
Photographs © Dennis and Patrick Weinert Read Streets & Stories 017 →