HERITAGE: The Stories We Honor

There are parts of our identity and heritage that can become so woven into everyday life that we forget to stop and look at them. A language spoken at home. A family recipe. A garment passed down from a mother. The stories our parents carried with them when they left one country and built a life in another.

HERITAGE is an ongoing cultural portrait photography series by Audrey Rouzer Portraits in Hagerstown, Maryland, created to explore those pieces of who we are and the stories behind them.

Each woman who steps in front of my camera brings something different into the studio: cultural clothing, family traditions, language, memories, objects, stories, or simply a part of herself she wants to understand and preserve. These aren’t portraits about fitting someone into a particular idea of heritage. They’re about giving each woman the space to define what hers means.

Over time, these photographs and stories will become a larger body of work, including a published book and exhibition celebrating the women who have trusted me with their stories.

Jenny Nguyễn is the first, a Vietnamese American woman whose relationship with her heritage has taken her through some complex feelings before ultimately helping her find her way back to herself.

Jenny N.

Jenny’s story begins with her parents. Her dad was born in Cần Thơ and her mom in Long Thành, both in South Vietnam. After the Vietnam War, their families made the difficult decision to leave everything they knew behind and immigrate to the United States.

Neither of Jenny’s parents had the opportunity to attend college. They arrived without much money and without much English, but still found ways to give back to their communities while building a life for their children. That example has stayed with Jenny. She describes her Vietnamese American identity as “the foundation of who I am,” and much of what she values today comes directly from watching her parents sacrifice, persevere, and give back.

But reconnecting with that identity wasn’t always easy. Growing up in Kansas, Jenny reached a point where she wanted desperately to fit in. “It’s honestly one of the harder things for me to reflect on. In elementary school, I was close with the other Asian kids in my class, and that felt easy and natural. But as I got older, in a class that was mostly not Asian, I started to want to fit in more with everyone else. I distanced myself from my Asian friends, and if I’m being fully honest with myself, a big part of that was because I was embarrassed, embarrassed of how I looked, embarrassed of my skin color, embarrassed to stand out. I didn’t want to be associated with the parts of myself that felt different. Looking back, that’s a painful thing to admit, but it’s true, and I think it’s important to say it out loud. It wasn’t until I moved from my hometown in Kansas to Maryland that everything shifted. I didn’t know a single person there, and for the first time, I felt a real, aching loss of identity. In that loneliness, I stumbled upon a Vietnamese festival in the DC area that happened to be hosting a pageant. Something in me said to try it, so I did, and I was fortunate enough to win the title of Miss VietFest United States. That title became so much more than a crown to me. It gave me a reason to pour myself into the Vietnamese community across the DMV area, and through it, I met so many incredible Vietnamese Americans who welcomed me in. I reconnected with my culture in a way I hadn’t since I was a little girl, and I finally understood just how much my heritage means to me, especially in a moment when I felt so lost. Connecting back to my culture is what helped me find myself again.”

For Jenny, it became a way back. “Connecting back to my culture is what helped me find myself again.”

Four áo dài, four stories

Jenny brought four áo dài to her Heritage session, and none of them were simply beautiful dresses. Her pink áo dài belonged to her mom. Wearing it felt like carrying a piece of her mother with her, a reminder of her beauty, generosity, and everything she sacrificed for Jenny and her four siblings.

Her light blue-green áo tứ thân with a royal blue tunic was custom-made for Jenny in Vietnam for Miss Maryland 2024, where she performed a Vietnamese cultural dance for her talent. Another áo dài was worn when Jenny competed for Miss Volunteer America in 2023. Standing on a national stage in Vietnamese cultural clothing gave her an opportunity to share something deeply important to her with people who may never have encountered it before. And the fourth was a gift from her older sister, who brought it home from Vietnam specifically for her. Jenny credits her sister with helping her navigate school, learn English, and supporting her throughout her life. We also photographed Jenny with her nón lá, mấn đính hạt ngọc, and the fan ribbons she uses in Vietnamese fan dancing.

The goal wasn’t simply to photograph Vietnamese clothing beautifully. It was to give all of these pieces of Jenny’s story somewhere to exist together.

The photographs we didn’t plan for HERITAGE

There was one image from Jenny’s session that neither of us expected to become such an important part of the story. She was wearing her mom’s pink áo dài and standing beneath the garland chandelier when I walked over and started photographing. It wasn’t a planned setup. We were just making a few photographs.

“When I saw the photo taken behind the garland chandelier in my pink áo dài, I thought “this is me.” It was actually unplanned; I was just standing under the chandelier when Audrey came over and we took a few spontaneous photos. When I saw it on the preview screen afterward, I was amazed, looking at myself and seeing, so clearly, a beautiful Vietnamese American woman looking back at me.”

That’s what I loved most about this session. The photograph isn’t really about the áo dài. It’s about what Jenny feels when she wears it.

What she hopes to carry forward

Jenny grew up speaking Vietnamese at home, but over the years she lost some of her fluency. She still speaks the language, but relearning Vietnamese is now one of her personal goals.

“I hope other people who may be embarrassed, or who don’t know much about their own culture, get to experience a heritage session like this. It really allows you to reflect, during the photo shoot itself, on what your heritage actually means to you, that’s exactly what it did for me. Being able to look at my áo dài, appreciate wearing it, take photos in it, and then see those photos afterward made me genuinely happy and warm inside. It also made me pretty vulnerable, because I’d never done a full áo dài photo shoot before. It was very special to me. It gave me a chance to sit with my heritage intentionally, in a way I don’t always get to in everyday life, and it reminded me how proud I am of where I come from.”

That is Jenny’s heritage. And this is what she chose to carry forward.

“My parents gave up everything they knew so I could become everything I am, and every day, I live to make that sacrifice worth it.”

JENNY N.

If this resonated with you, and you’d like to participate in HERITAGE, apply here.