(VOVWORLD) - When was the last time you hung out with your mother? Do you and your mother often take photos together? If my questions sound like a wake up call to remind you of your precious relationship with your mother, check out Luk Bao Ngoc studio’s project ‘Spring is when we’re with our mother’, you may well find it relatable.
“When I was young and living in Budapest, Hungary, my mother spent a lot of time with me. She often picked me up after school and then we would go out for ice cream. We would just stand there eating ice cream nonstop no matter if it was summer or winter. My mom loved it,” said Mrs. Worldwide 2018 Duong Thuy Linh.
“The best thing I remember about my mom is that she was very courageous. She lost her mom when she was 2 years old. I often dream about my grandmother. In my dreams, she always told me that I need to protect my mom. So every time I face adversity, I just think of my mom and feel inspired to keep going,” MC Thanh Van (Van Hugo) said.
“I’ve been working far from home and never stay at any one place for a long time. My mom worries a lot about my routine. So she has made lots of dried food for me to bring along to my shows. Every time I eat the food my mom made, I miss my home a lot,” said MC Phi Thuy Linh.
What Duong Thuy Linh, Thanh Van, and Phi Thuy Linh have shared were collected by journalist Nguyen Bao Ngoc under a project ‘called "Spring is when we’re with our mother". Inspired by her own relationship with her mother and her passion for telling women’s stories through pictures, she decided to start this moving project. Ngoc said: “I think mothers and daughters have so many stories to tell. But in modern life, the connections are often missing. Sometimes, there’s distance between them. So I really want to remind them that whether they live in the same house or far from each other, the bond is still there. I want to capture it and save those memories in this project.”
 MC Phi Linh goes shopping with her mother at a spring flower market (Photo: Luk Bao Ngoc Photography) |
The project started out with photoshoot of 4 mother-daughter couples, in which the daughters were Mrs Worldwide 2018 Duong Thuy Linh, actress Bao Thanh, MCs Thanh Van and Phi Thuy Linh. All of them are successful celebrities who lead a very busy life. There’s the shoot of mother and daughter hanging out on the streets on a spring morning, mother and daughter embracing the Spring spirit in their Ao Dai (Vietnamese traditional dress), a daughter returning home after a long trip to fall into her mother’s arms, or daughter and mother shopping at the spring flower market near their home. Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thao, Bao Thanh’s mother is happy to do the shoot with her daughter. She said: “We wanted to do a photoshoot together long ago so this is a very surprising opportunity, especially when it takes place during the Tet holiday, an occasion for family reunion. It means a lot to us both now and for years to come.”
 Actress Bao Thanh and her mother in Ao Dai (Photo: Luk Bao Ngoc Photography) |
Bao Ngoc also wrote a song entitled ‘Spring with mother’, which pictures a phone conversation between a daughter and her mother. She said she couldn’t make it home for the Tet holiday, and that she missed her mom and family a lot. The mother said she wanted her daughter to take good care of herself and come home whenever possible.
Ngoc invited her photoshoot characters, who are all amateur singers, to record the song. The recording was very emotional for them. “I went abroad to study,” MC Thanh Van said, “ When I came back, the first person I wanted to see was my mom. So when I sing this song, I feel very much in sympathy with it and understand all the lyrics.”
 MC Thanh Van chills out with her mother at their home (Photo: Luk Bao Ngoc Photography) |
After the recording comes the music video shoot, which popped up randomly in Ngoc’s mind after she witnessed her singers’ emotional recording. Everything was set up at a very short time and the crew had just a few days to finish filming and editing. But Ngoc is happy the video turned out as simple and sincere as the mother-daughter relationship. She said: “This MV was made from the enthusiasm of all the participants. I was so surprised because the amateur singers not only sing very well, they also sing with all their feelings. I even saw them crying in the studio.”
The characters did also enjoy themselves doing this project. Duong Thuy Linh said:“It was initially more like working for me as I get so used to taking photos in my career. But after the results came out, I really felt it made an impact on our relationship. My mom was happy to see how beautiful she looked in the photos. And she also appreciates my work more.”
 Mrs. Worldwide 2018 Duong Thuy Linh hangs out with her mother (Photo: Luk Bao Ngoc Photography) |
The music video for "Spring with mother" was shared on Luk Bao Ngoc photography’s facebook fanpage and attracted tens of thousands of views and comments. Vu Dieu Huyen from Hanoi said: “This is a very special song, especially for women who are living away from their family and their dearest mother. The first time that I've heard the song, I felt very touched. It brought tears to my eyes. I just wanted to go home right then to give my mom a big warm hug.”