“Assignment Vietnam” follows food through its complete arc in northern Vietnam — from the soil it grows in to the table where it's eaten — and your job as a visual storyteller is to document that journey with the eye of a journalist and the patience of someone who has been given seven days to get it right.

Before you arrive, you'll have a one-on-one, remote portfolio review with project editor Molly Roberts, a veteran magazine editor based in the U.S. That conversation establishes your creative direction.

In Hanoi, the days start early. Pre-dawn at Long Biên market, where the city's food supply changes hands in near-darkness before most people are awake. Rice paddies in the Red River Delta at planting season, where the work is communal and the light on the water is extraordinary. Artisan food producers — tofu makers, rice wine distillers, bánh mì bakers — working in the same way they've worked for generations. Street vendors and market stalls. A highland homestay where the meal you photograph at the end of the day was grown on the hillside outside the window.

Two Zoom sessions with your U.S. editor happen during the trip itself — not as a debrief, but as a working edit. You share what you've made, she tells you what you have and what you still need, and you go back out with a clearer eye.

On the final day, the group edits together. Each photographer selects their 6 to 8 strongest images. The sequence is built. The zine goes to print.