The Pursuit of Happiness with My Paper Shoot Camera

My name is Hoàng. I am a third-year university student with a loving family and a comfortable life, without too many worries about making ends meet. Yet after more than five months of the COVID pandemic, spent largely within the same four walls, life had begun to feel strangely empty. Sometimes, I found myself wondering: was I actually happy?

One Saturday evening, I happened to watch The Pursuit of Happyness. The film left me thinking about life and the elusive idea of “happiness” that runs through its story.

As those questions lingered, my Paper Shoot camera caught my eye. It felt like a small suggestion—a possible way to find an answer.

“Why not look for happiness through the lens of the camera I’ve just bought?” I thought.

And so, with my best friend beside me, I set out to capture what happiness might look like.

Stop #1: Saigon Central Post Office—What Is Happiness, and Where Do We Send It?

Saigon Central Post Office. Taken with a Paper Shoot camera using the Black & White filter.

s soon as I reached the post office entrance, I noticed a man around my grandfather’s age holding a camera. That small detail immediately gave us something in common: we both enjoyed capturing moments in other people’s lives.

His name was Diên. He told me he had been taking photographs for 30 years, earning a living through his camera. Now approaching 80, he carried the experiences of a life spent working different jobs in different places before finally putting down roots in Saigon.

Mr. Diên with his camera. Taken with a Paper Shoot camera using the Black & White filter.

His life had not been easy. Yet as we talked and I photographed him, I noticed the joy in his eyes—the enthusiasm that appeared whenever someone stopped to talk, share a moment, or have their picture taken.

Something so simple could be happiness, too.

At that moment, a line attributed to photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt, which I had encountered through Paper Shoot, began to mean something more to me:

“It’s more important to click with people than to click the shutter.”

Mr. Diên enjoying a moment of connection. Taken with a Paper Shoot camera using the Black & White filter.

Photography asks us to connect with people and the stories behind their pictures. Happiness, I began to think, also deserved a closer look. It was a familiar word, but understanding what it meant to me would take a journey.

Stop #2: How Does Our Understanding of Happiness Grow?

Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica of Saigon. Taken with a Paper Shoot camera using the Black & White filter.

My search continued at a street corner opposite Notre-Dame Cathedral. While I was looking around and taking photographs, a woman selling lottery tickets approached and asked whether I would like to buy some.

I used to imagine that selling lottery tickets must be exhausting and discouraging: spending long days outside, through sunshine and rain, with tickets in hand.

How would it feel to do the same thing every day—for ten days, ten weeks, or ten years?

I had never considered that someone might find happiness in that work. But after spending some time beside this woman, watching people pass, I began to question my assumptions.

For Ms. Đang, there was pleasure in someone stopping to buy a ticket. Each sale seemed to plant a little seed of hope—the possibility of winning the jackpot.

Watching her, I suddenly recognized something familiar. I took photographs again and again, yet every time I lifted my Paper Shoot camera to capture a moment I found beautiful, I still felt that little spark of joy.

Ms. Đang smiling as we talked. Taken with a Paper Shoot camera using the Black & White filter.

I had once imagined happiness as something grand or out of reach. That day, I began to see how much of it could come from the smallest, most ordinary parts of life.

Stop #3: Can a Little Variety Make Happiness More Interesting?

Young people skateboarding. Taken with a Paper Shoot camera using the Black & White filter.

After sitting with Ms. Đang, I heard the sound of skateboard wheels in the distance. Looking closer, I spotted a young woman moving freely on her board.

Her name was Lola. Like many people, she worked in an office. After demanding hours at work, her weekend hobbies gave her a way to unwind and find fresh motivation.

Skateboarding was something she had only recently started exploring. Watching her turns and movements, I could see how fully she was enjoying the experience.

Lola with her skateboard. Taken with a Paper Shoot camera using the Black & White filter.

I admired her confidence and the energy she brought to something she loved. Watching her also brought me back to my own questions.

Was I enjoying my photography with that same sense of presence? Did pressing the shutter to capture something beautiful make me happy?

To understand those feelings, I would need to keep exploring—to meet more people and capture more of life’s simple, meaningful moments with my Paper Shoot.

“A little variety can add so much flavor to life.”

There are more stories to come as I continue discovering what happiness means to me.

(To be continued…)

Written by: Khang + DungPhotography: Hạnh