Can you tell us a little bit about how you became a photographer?

I started photography to de-stress after intense classes in my early college years. I was studying landscape architecture. Then photography was a way to help me express my thoughts and feelings.

Photo: Chiron Duong

Please share something about your images. What is your special interest? How do you choose the colors, composition, themes etc.? 

My work evokes the context in which I grew up, which is a beautiful countryside in Vietnam, so it is very dreamy and airy, and later it blends with the realities of society when I was growing up. I think I'm at a crossroads between European and Asian cultures. As well as the beginning of universal telephone technology. Therefore, the works evoke both the old and the modern at the same time. The colors reflect inspiration from Asia, Vietnam.

Photo: Chiron Duong

Where does this interest come from?

I am interested in landscape plants and culture. I love observation and creativity, playing in any job. It is a seriousness interspersed with amusements like the way an adult walking with a child. So I'm interested in observing.

Photo: Chiron Duong

How do you get inspired? And what inspires you the most? Films, books, or magazines? Or what surrounds you?

This depends on different stages. I used to like watching movies, reading books. But now I like to experience the landscape, the culture, the people and observe for myself to find interesting things around me.

Photo: Chiron Duong

What are your plans for the rest of the day? 

I will watch other photographers and find interesting projects

What else should we know about you?

Chiron Duong (Dat Duong born in 1996) graduated from Ho Chi Minh City University of Architecture and is a fashion and fine-art photographer in Vietnam. His biggest inspiration is the culture of Vietnam and Asian cultures in general.

“I’ve explored (these cultures) and learned a lot from my research: The Asian color palettes are not only extremely vivid and uplifting, but they are also liberating, delightful, and they have so many stories to tell.”

“I strive to convey the mysterious sentiments of Asian life with its folklore and traditional beliefs. My instrument is photography: I strive to offer my audience pictures whose colors, materials, emotions, and technique manifest the interference of Eastern, especially Vietnamese and Western culture.”

“My works also evoke the contrast between the child’s soaring and optimistic mind and the empty soul of the grown-up in modern society.”