“And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.” (Murakami Haruki)
A quote from Murakami Haruki’s Kafka on the Shore often evokes the changes in human life when going through events. However, I want to stick to the literal meaning of these words to mention that storms come, change human life, human mind. Is it too late to worry about the necessary and core life skills in life? What I always find fascinating about Haruki Murakami’s fantasy stories is that the characters are equipped with the necessary skills for this life – skills that are not in the priority of the masses and the times: for example, some characters know how to read maps, shoot arrows, swim, tie ropes… very interesting.
I come from a rural, remote area in Vietnam, so I also find it interesting in watch that special skills in the movie The Boy and the Heron by Miyazaki Hayao và Studio Ghibli, about the character Mahito having the skills to create a bow and arrow through manual steps, the part describing the process of making the bow and arrow is what I like the most. It does not stop at simply creating by hand, but uses a lot of thinking and creativity to find a way to shoot arrows, creating a bow with all the shortcomings of the external environment, which is also the moment when the character’s inner self is revealed. And it clarifies the message very well: How do you live?
Or a detail, when I discovered very personally, maybe right or wrong (from the perspective of landscape architecture), about the similarities in the history of art schools from the perspective of overall planning, is a balance between Body, Soul, and Mind. “Body” can be the use of the body, manual work, strength… “soul”: can be the soul, thoughts, feelings about life, and the changes of the times… “Mind”: can be composition, technique, research on both experience and intention, etc. But “body”, “mind”, “soul” is a complex whole that is difficult to see, so there are things that are balanced in a way that tends to be superior about “soul”, superior about “body”, superior about “mind”, but the whole is still harmonious… Those are my personal observations, and they are certainly partial; they may be right or wrong they are not necessarily right or wrong.
Back to the present, before the constant changes of ecology and society. I do not care much about my style as a photographer; what I care about is that, as a landscape architect, but doing art, I should do something to balance the “body”, “mind”, “soul”. To find creative ways to balance the ego of the artist and adapt to the complex changes of today’s living environment, even more or less, can inspire many people to make small changes, to be more responsible for our planet, like the ethics of a landscape architect.
Related to these concerns, new artistic experiments were born, and I want to share them with you, maybe find other ways. Thinking about Mother Earth – Honoring handmade. Connecting human souls – nature through science in new photography experiments in 2025 by Chiron Duong: “La Main De Saigon” process, “Geno Korner” process, and Flower For Monday Blues project. My goals are as follows:
– La Main De Saigon: (collaboration Dremachi Space) When witnessing the props of fashion photoshoots being made and then thrown away, it is very wasteful. Many props are large in size, used once, and then thrown away. Or they can be recycled, but it still costs a lot of money to recycle, adding another step to the process of these props. This approach, from my perspective, is wasteful and lacks consideration for the impact on global ecology. However, fashion photography always needs to have an attractive look in the photos. Is there any other way? Is that both visually satisfying and ecologically responsible? I experimented with the process of combining crafts, shrinking the photos, and creating very small props to display in the photos. Reducing the amount of waste created in fashion photoshoots, while also bringing in the human craftsmanship, and finally, the zoomed-in nature of photography.
– For Geno Korner: (collaboration Dremachi Space) I want to use photography to pay tribute to the book projects that illustrate the philosophy of the connection between humans and their living environment and nature, as well as a tribute to Mother Earth for the impact that each of our actions has on the sensitivity of nature. This process uses the camera as a machine/device to express the honor of nature and combines the manual collage techniques from human hands. The link between science (creating the camera), humans (craft, handmade, creating the drawings, surfaces, meanings), and nature (the beauty of nature).
– Flowers for Monday Blues: (collaboration Dremachi Space) The beauty of nature goes hand in hand with humanity and science. I experiment with creating magical, breathtaking, and stimulating feelings by miniaturizing landscapes I capture on my travels, printing and re-shooting them with other decorative props such as butterflies and ribbons.
“Finally, think about a life on this planet (human and other species), expanding our worldview, rather than just a human life.”
Geno Korner
(collaboration Dremachi Space)
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La Main De Saigon
(collaboration Dremachi Space)
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Flowers For Monday Blues
(collaboration Dremachi Space)
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“Finally, think about a life on this planet (human and other species), expanding our worldview, rather than just a human life.”
Chiron Duong Cultural Programs
