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More than words: The Beginning & End of Something by Aaron Joel Santos |
HA NOI — A new exhibition at The Bui Gallery in downtown Ha Noi has gathered four photographers, all with vastly different views and subjects from the capital, to showcase the underlying mysteries of the city.
Titled Days and Nights, the exhibition gathers photographers Jamie Maxtone-Graham from New York City, Nguyen Na Son from Ha Noi, Aaron Joel Santos from New Orleans, and Diego Cortizas from Madrid.
For the show, the walls of the gallery have been painted black, and black curtains separate the four rooms, giving each individual photographer a space to curate their own works. Within these "black boxes", viewers must stop to contemplate the works on their own, with nothing else there to distract or detract from them.
Maxtone-Graham contributes the largest number of images among all of the artists, all taken from his Night Market series. The 21 photographs on display offer candid yet composed views of labourers, sellers and residents within the Long Bien night market. His portraits are intense and confrontational, but they are not without a certain tenderness and tranquillity.
Born in NYC, Maxtone-Graham studied film, photography and literature at school, and is still very involved in cinematography and the local film scene. He is mostly known for having worked on Three Seasons with director Tony Bui.
Na Son, a resident Hanoian, is showing only four photographs at the exhibition, but he says that they show a "profound understanding of the city".
"I've changed my style to become a more simple shooter, to show deeper feelings with fewer techniques," he told Viet Nam News. "Less is more. I think these images are more potent than my previous works".
Na Son toes the line between journalism and fine art. He is a freelance photographer who contributes to the Associated Press in Viet Nam, other newspapers and magazines including Tuoi Tre (Youth), Lao Dong (Labour), Dep (Beauty) and Heritage. His photographs have been published in various foreign newspapers and magazines such as USA Today, The Washington Post, Stern and The Guardian.
Having lived in Viet Nam for the shortest amount of time among the four photographers, Santos's work depicts the capital's changing urban landscape through the sometimes romanticised eyes of a person still coming to know the city. Working in total black and white, his images show a city rushing headlong into the future while desperately trying to retain a large part of its history. The images feel at once lonely and desolate, but also filled with hints of hope and joy.
Santos's photographs have been shown in numerous international publications, as well as in galleries in the US, Malaysia and Viet Nam.
Cortizas, by contrast, shows a secondary city through a series of reflective surfaces. He chooses the most symbolic places in Ha Noi, like the Opera House, Saint Joseph's Cathedral and Long Bien Bridge. All of his works are on display as triptychs, placed in shuttered black boxes. When the shutters are opened, a skewed and reflective panorama of the city emerges.
"I've drawn landscapes outside the boxes, and when they are opened, the real photographs emerge," he says.
Cortizas lives in Ha Noi with his wife and three children, and also works as a fashion designer.
The exhibition will run at The Bui Gallery, at 23 Ngo Van So Street, Ha Noi, until next Thursday. — VNS