profiles on the road: long thanh

10th February 2012

Nha Trang, Vietnam

                In an attempt to keep this blog fresh and hopefully interesting, I thought I would try something slightly different from my usual "I was here and I did this and that" style of blogging by drawing attention to some of the interesting characters that I come across whilst on the road. Hopefully the first of many 'profiles on the road', today I want to cover a Vietnamese photographer who has gained world wide acclaim for his captivating and highly iconic black-and-white photographs of everyday Vietnamese life. The man in question is Mr. Long Thanh who was born in the seaside town of Nha Trang in 1951. His passion for photography was evident from an early age as he shot, and developed, his first black-and-white photograph when he was thirteen and looking at the impressive array of photographs which line the walls of his art gallery in this costal town, it seems he has never looked back. Unlike many other photographers in Vietnam who receive international attention for their work, Thanh  has refrained from moving to the larger cities of Hanoi or Saigon, instead choosing to live in his home town of Nha Trang; a city it seems, that continues to be a great source of inspiration for his work. His ability to capture the various emotions and feelings of the Vietnamese people with a single click of his old Leica camera (M4 Model) has gained him recognition around the world and his list of accolades is, to say the least, daunting. His work has been shown in over fifty exhibitions throughout Europe, Asia and North America and several of his most well known photographs have won him numerous international awards. In addition, out of 17,000 professional and amateur photographers from 164 countries, two of his photographs were chosen to appear in the MILK (Moments, Intimacy, Laughter, Kinship -see link at bottom of post for more information) series of coffee table books a few years ago; an achievement which has added immeasurably to his growing international reputation. From my brief bit of research on Mr. Thanh it appears that another reason why he has achieved such admiration within the international photography community is because of his decision to work within the notoriously difficult black-and-white format. His website has some interesting, if quite subjective, insights into this 'lost art'. Consider the following:
              
        "People prefer and highly appreciate the effect of black and white photographs - "the minimised distraction, the emphasis on light, the simplicity of images and the focus on line and form.' To produce a hand-made black and white photograph, the artists should take that photo by a manual camera with reel film. Then he brings it home for film developing, drying it out, printing by hand in his dark room...Also, it takes much more time, effort, passion, talent as well as the wealth to order the black and white films and produce a perfect picture. Compared to the modern digital photographs these days, real hand-made black and white ones reflect all every lines and details truthfully."

          Unlike the vast majority of other Vietnamese photographers who now work in colour or the digital format, Mr. Thanh has shot all of his work in black-and-white, developing the prints himself. The reason why black-and-white photography is not more prevalent in Vietnam is that the materials required to shoot and develop the photographs are not widely available and expensive. Thanh has therefore spent the past 15 years getting friends and clients from around the world to send him the required tools he needs for his trade and this constant struggle seems to say a great deal about the dedication and passion he holds in his quest for the perfect photograph. Needless to say then, Mr. Thanh is a highly prolific artist and upon the recommendation of the rough guide, my second day in the seaside town of Nha Trang was spent looking around his gallery to see what all the fuss was about.  Arriving in the afternoon, I was greeted by an elderly woman who sat in a darkened front room and upon seeing me enter through the narrow doorway, she turned the lights on to reveal a long narrow corridor which stretched to the back of the building that housed a vast collection of Mr. Thanh's major works. I spent about an hour looking through all the images that lined the walls and was impressed by the wide range of human emotions which he has managed to capture on the faces of the people he meets on his travels around his homeland. The natural expressions and mannerisms of the people he  shoots, suggests that he develops a good relationship with them before taking a photograph, and in return they seem to open up to the lens of his camera by showing genuine human emotions from overwhelming happiness in the face of a young child to abject sadness in the subdued eyes of an elderly lady. I had read in my book that this gallery was also where he spent a lot of his time, developing new photographs in his personal studio and sure enough upon entering the final room, I came across a large grey door which had 'DARK ROOM' scrawled across it in black marker pen. The door opened and Mr. Thanh hurried out to grab a small rectangular dish filled with some transparent liquid; no doubt to be used in the development of his latest print. I introduced myself and we had a brief chat where I expressed that although new to his work, I greatly appreciated his photographs. I would of liked to speak with him longer but he seemed to be in the middle of something as he quickly departed closing the large grey door behind him leaving me to enjoy the rest of his photographs.  

Long Thanh. A photographer of phenomenal skill and an inspirational talent to budding artists all around the world.

Here is a link to Mr. Thanh's official website:

http://www.longthanhart.com/images.htm

My favourite shot of his is called, ''In the Rain", see what you think by clicking here.
http://www.longthanhart.com/section09_02.htm

The official M.I.L.K wesbite:
http://www.milkphotos.com/whatismilk/index.html

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