The Pink Choice (Vietnamese: Yêu Là Yêu) by Maika Elan, the professional name of Nguyen Thanh Hai, was developed from 2010 and photographed mainly between July 2011 and March 2012 in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and other sites in Vietnam, focusing on the domestic lives of same-sex couples.
The project emerged at a moment when public discussion of LGBTQ+ life in Vietnam was beginning to shift, yet social stigma remained strong. Against a backdrop of conservative family expectations, hostile media stereotypes, and the long-standing ban on same-sex marriage, Elan turned to everyday life rather than public debate. Her photographs examine how intimacy, care, and shared routine can become a way of questioning the categories through which queer lives had often been reduced: comic caricature, tragedy, or scandal. In that sense, The Pink Choice does not argue through slogans. It documents private spaces in which affection appears as part of ordinary life, and in doing so it helped give visual form to a broader change in social visibility.
That emphasis on ordinary life shapes the project’s visual language. Elan photographs couples in bedrooms, kitchens, and living rooms, often at rest or absorbed in small routines: eating, watching television, listening, sleeping, or caring for one another. The frames hold the textures of inhabited rooms—laundry, furniture, magazines, pets, dim corners, filtered daylight—so that the home becomes more than a backdrop. Color is central to the work, replacing the masking, blurring, or rear views that had often marked earlier representations of LGBTQ+ subjects in Vietnam. Available light, shadows, and close domestic space create an atmosphere of quiet intimacy without theatrical emphasis.
Working largely with film and favoring a slow documentary process, she spent extended periods building trust with participants before photographing them. She often used 35mm lenses for a natural field of view, while wider lenses helped her work inside narrow interiors. Rather than stage scenes, she waited for moments when her presence receded, sometimes observing from a corner of the room until gestures and interactions unfolded on their own.
First shown in Hanoi in 2012, the project gained international recognition when Elan won first prize in the Contemporary Issues category at World Press Photo in 2013, becoming the first Vietnamese photographer to receive that distinction.
