Chapter 3: For Peace
(365 Days With Project “Portraits Of Áo Dài- Hope For Peace And Love”)
Peace is the second keyword I associate with Áo Dài.
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One winter morning in Ho Chi Minh City, I saw a group of ladies in black Áo Dài crossing the street and glittering rays of dawn shining down on them. That overwhelming moment was like a movie scene deliberately slowed down to the extreme, and boom, the ladies were submerged by sunlight. This memory is a moment of enlightenment in which I see the border between glory and doom. At the same time, it inadvertently touched a tiny part of my subconscious about the wartime stories told by my grandmother, reaching further to another bit of haunting memory from a visit of mine to the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City.
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Therefore, Peace as a keyword is not only associated with me, but it is profound to my motherland and all citizens of Earth.
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In this chapter, I am taking ideas from the peripheries of tradition and modernity to express the extremes between burning passion and fatal despair, balancing these extremes with moments of peace like a refreshing rain of resurrection.
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About: 365 Days with project “Portraits Of Áo Dài- Hope For Peace And Love”
One day I was asked by many foreign friends about Áo Dài, but unfortunately, I haven’t taken many pictures of Áo Dài. Áo Dài is a special traditional dress of my country- Viet Nam
For me, Áo Dài is both an adjective and a noun. Áo Dài just evokes rustic, simple, seductive Vietnamese women and contains many memories.
Vietnamese Áo Dài is not only a kind of national dress but also contains a rich history, cultural traditions, aesthetic conceptions, national consciousness, and spirit of the Vietnamese people.
Through many changes in society and times, Áo Dài has always been a beautiful symbol of the national culture, and the pride of Vietnamese people.
The models in this photo series are mostly my friends in many different fields, they are not professional models and do not have the usual beauty of Asian models, there are people who are for the first time standing in front of the camera lens.
Thanks for watching!
