Trang Minh Hoang
Ana Lucía Fernández
trang:
"I was born in 1993 and I got my bachelor's degree of Marketing in the UK in 2014. It means that I had 4 years abroad faraway from my homeland.
I got my first camera when I was a freshman at the university. Quite like you, at that time, I went around with my camera to capture everything I saw since it was the way to explore a totally new world at the age of 18. After 4 years of university, I felt that I needed something new rather than just stop at taking photos of nature, friends or people around me. Hence, I didn’t touch the camera anymore, I didn’t feel the inspiration and the urge to take photos like the way I used to.
I came back to Vietnam in 2014 and I began to visit a lot of art exhibitions including painting, sculpture, video art or installation. I started seeing that I want to do something relating to art but not so sure because I don’t have a degree in art. However, I colloborated with a friend of mine to found an art program for young artists in 2017. We were the producers as well as the participants in the program. I did my very first artwork, it was a lacquer sculpture. Simultaneously, I did some freelance jobs to earn for a living. I didn’t do any photography things at that time.
Not until 2018, I joined a workshop of photo storytelling and editing organized by Zhuang Wubin, a researcher and curator of South East Asian photography. Thus I started acknowledging that I can use photography as a medium of visual art. That was the time I found my interest in photography again.
For now, I use photography as a way to observe my inner self connecting with the outer world. I see photos not simply as visual ones which bring information or a good-looking appearance but a symbol of something that can bring feelings to the audience. It can also be understood as Expressionism in art. I’m also trying video art parallel to photography."
"I was born in 1993 and I got my bachelor's degree of Marketing in the UK in 2014. It means that I had 4 years abroad faraway from my homeland.
I got my first camera when I was a freshman at the university. Quite like you, at that time, I went around with my camera to capture everything I saw since it was the way to explore a totally new world at the age of 18. After 4 years of university, I felt that I needed something new rather than just stop at taking photos of nature, friends or people around me. Hence, I didn’t touch the camera anymore, I didn’t feel the inspiration and the urge to take photos like the way I used to.
I came back to Vietnam in 2014 and I began to visit a lot of art exhibitions including painting, sculpture, video art or installation. I started seeing that I want to do something relating to art but not so sure because I don’t have a degree in art. However, I colloborated with a friend of mine to found an art program for young artists in 2017. We were the producers as well as the participants in the program. I did my very first artwork, it was a lacquer sculpture. Simultaneously, I did some freelance jobs to earn for a living. I didn’t do any photography things at that time.
Not until 2018, I joined a workshop of photo storytelling and editing organized by Zhuang Wubin, a researcher and curator of South East Asian photography. Thus I started acknowledging that I can use photography as a medium of visual art. That was the time I found my interest in photography again.
For now, I use photography as a way to observe my inner self connecting with the outer world. I see photos not simply as visual ones which bring information or a good-looking appearance but a symbol of something that can bring feelings to the audience. It can also be understood as Expressionism in art. I’m also trying video art parallel to photography."
"For me, I asked my family to go to the public playground near my house and pose. They stood there and remained a certain distance since I want to convey the hedgehog’s dilemma theory. I was in the middle of the photo and looked away with a confusing/uncertain facial expression when my mom stood behind with a umbrella in her hand as a symbol for her “overwhelming” care that makes me suffocating sometimes. "
"As family members, we love and care about each other. At the same time, we also somehow hurt each other..."
Ana Lucia:
"I was born in Colombia 23 years ago, but I moved to Spain when I was 8. I lived there until at 19 I moved to Brussels for a year, and consequently to Antwerp.
I feel heavily inspired by things and people that surround me, as well as the music. Specially the latter. Both photography and music are my ways of escaping my reality and making my own. I've been quite obcessed with them because of their capacity to transport you into new worlds.
I'm curious to know you story. Who are you? How was your day? What brought you into photography? What inspires you? Hope you can answer all this "philosophical" questions soon."
"In Dutch there is the distinction between your close family (gezin, those who usually live with you like your parents and siblings) and the rest (familie, your aunts, uncles, cousins, etc). I will use these terms to explain myself a bit better.
I feel like I can relate to the hedgehog's dilemma too. Specially with my gezin. Whenever I am far from them, I feel as if something is absent. They make me feel protected and loved, and I miss them. But as soon as I am back, all the conflicts come afloat. I believe that the reason to this, is a horrible fear of losing them, and not being able to be there with them in their last moments. I do not want our last conversation to be an argument, so I dilute myself, and avoid confrontation.
For me, the idea of family is quite contradicting. In a way, I feel as if is vital, it can be a source of support and strength, but at the same time I believe that it can be destructive and obstructive. When I was 8, my mom got married to a man who adopted me and became my father. Months after the marriage, we moved across the Atlantic and left my familie behind. I was quite small so I could not comprehend what this meant. My father's family never really accepted me and my mother. Our conversations are transactional, the typical "happy birthday" and "merry Christmas", and that's it. On the contrary, my mother's family has always been really close. I call my aunts and cousins every week and I really feel their love although I am 10000 km away.
I am aware of the kind of relationship that I have at this moment with them, but I am increasingly curious about the past. My memory is quite blurry thus I only remember certain specific events. The rest is a void, that I have tried to fill with stories and images, and with time I am coming to a point were everything is undistinguishable. Since one of my biggest interest is the connection between memory and identity, I will try to exploit my family archive and my "amnesia” in a way to represent how I felt about family when I was a child.
Since I will work with existing photographic material, I still need to sit down and go through the images. Perhaps the emotions will guide me towards an end result."
"I was born in Colombia 23 years ago, but I moved to Spain when I was 8. I lived there until at 19 I moved to Brussels for a year, and consequently to Antwerp.
I feel heavily inspired by things and people that surround me, as well as the music. Specially the latter. Both photography and music are my ways of escaping my reality and making my own. I've been quite obcessed with them because of their capacity to transport you into new worlds.
I'm curious to know you story. Who are you? How was your day? What brought you into photography? What inspires you? Hope you can answer all this "philosophical" questions soon."
"In Dutch there is the distinction between your close family (gezin, those who usually live with you like your parents and siblings) and the rest (familie, your aunts, uncles, cousins, etc). I will use these terms to explain myself a bit better.
I feel like I can relate to the hedgehog's dilemma too. Specially with my gezin. Whenever I am far from them, I feel as if something is absent. They make me feel protected and loved, and I miss them. But as soon as I am back, all the conflicts come afloat. I believe that the reason to this, is a horrible fear of losing them, and not being able to be there with them in their last moments. I do not want our last conversation to be an argument, so I dilute myself, and avoid confrontation.
For me, the idea of family is quite contradicting. In a way, I feel as if is vital, it can be a source of support and strength, but at the same time I believe that it can be destructive and obstructive. When I was 8, my mom got married to a man who adopted me and became my father. Months after the marriage, we moved across the Atlantic and left my familie behind. I was quite small so I could not comprehend what this meant. My father's family never really accepted me and my mother. Our conversations are transactional, the typical "happy birthday" and "merry Christmas", and that's it. On the contrary, my mother's family has always been really close. I call my aunts and cousins every week and I really feel their love although I am 10000 km away.
I am aware of the kind of relationship that I have at this moment with them, but I am increasingly curious about the past. My memory is quite blurry thus I only remember certain specific events. The rest is a void, that I have tried to fill with stories and images, and with time I am coming to a point were everything is undistinguishable. Since one of my biggest interest is the connection between memory and identity, I will try to exploit my family archive and my "amnesia” in a way to represent how I felt about family when I was a child.
Since I will work with existing photographic material, I still need to sit down and go through the images. Perhaps the emotions will guide me towards an end result."
"The image appears blurry. You can see two people that are clearly the subject of the picture, but you cannot distinguish who they are. My mom is holding me, keeping me safe from the water running under me. I believe this to be the perfect metaphor."