Photography exhibition «Hanoi Photo Exhibition»

   Pictures that normally live in a feed and on a phone screen come off the screen for four days and go up on the wall of a small gallery in central Hanoi. GuruShots, the international platform that turns shooting into a contest between photographers, is back in the city with a group show: the work was sent in by photographers from more than 20 countries, part of it printed, the rest shown digitally.

   The organisers call the show an inclusive one: nobody was picked off a curator's list, everyone here submitted their frames to the platform themselves. The printed selection is the core of the exhibition, and alongside it runs a digital one, drawn from the platform's contest winners — too many of them to fit on the walls. Hanoi is not new ground for GuruShots: the team writes that it is glad to be back and to put the range of its photographers on show here.

   What to expect
— format: an open group show, with no curatorial guest list
— content: printed works plus a separate digital selection of winners
— reach: photographers from more than 20 countries, as stated by the organisers
— opening night: drinks, and an invitation to meet other photographers
— room size: up to 50 people, so the opening will be a close-quarters affair

   Come if you take pictures yourself and want to see what a stream of frames looks like once it is printed and hung; if you follow the Hanoi photo scene and want to know what gets brought in from outside; or if you simply like looking at other people's cities and faces. The value of a show like this is not big names — there may well be none — but the width of the sample: two dozen countries in one room give you a cross-section of what is being shot right now.

   The venue is a deliberate choice. Matca is an independent initiative run by photographers themselves since 2016: first a bilingual online journal on Vietnamese photography, now holding more than 200 articles, then a publishing imprint, and in April 2019 a physical room on the third floor of a creative complex, stacked between a cafe, a photo studio and studio apartments for visiting artists. The room is small, around 40 square metres, with tall windows and proper exhibition lighting; it hosts shows, art talks, photobook launches and short courses.

   The four days do not run to one timetable: on 5 November only the evening reception is open, from 18:00 to 20:00, and the show can be viewed at leisure from the next day onwards, during daytime hours. Look for the room on the third floor of the complex; Sóng Sánh Café takes up the first two, which makes it easy to wait for company or talk over what you have just seen.

   Questions about the space and about access go to [email protected]. Four days is a short run for an exhibition, so plan your visit early: printed photography rewards an unhurried look.