Chiron Duong (Durong Quang Dat)
Vietnam. Born 1996
To paint a portrait of Vietnamese youth today, Chiron Duong proceeded in a systematic and highly organized manner. He asked each of his models, all different, to come to his studio with two types of clothing, those they usually wear on a daily basis to go for a coffee or meet friends and those they reserve for more important, more formal events, such as cocktail parties, concerts, artistic events. He also asked them to answer a twenty-point questionnaire that allowed him to form a more precise opinion of them. Often surprising questions: Which painting would you like to destroy or burn ?, Describe a chair that does not exist or Describe a mask that you would like to wear, for example. He then had his characters pose, asking them to move, to throw small objects while lighting them with strobe flashes that allowed him to break down the movement and invent, in a rather random way, dynamic compositions. This is how he had already proceeded for his series on “Ao Dài”, the traditional Vietnamese dress that he published in 2023 in a large book that he titled Hope for Peace and Love.
Born in 1996, Chiron Duong did not intend to pursue photography at all and studied to become an architect and landscape designer at the University of Ho Chi Minh City. He continues to work in these fields but, since 2017, he has been interested in photography and has quickly gained recognition in the field of fashion which became his professional activity, he was awarded in France the Prix Picto for fashion photography in 2020, then in 2022 by the reference festival of fashion and photography of Hyères ( France) before receiving in 2022 the Photo prize of Italian Vogue.
This project on youth is an exploration of identity perceived through clothing appearance and asks whether or not it corresponds to a deep, inner reality. A questioning of the conscious and unconscious behaviors of the Vietnamese youth.
Christian Caujolle
Exhibited at Hôtel La Plantation.
