Most of Danh's work is focused on the Vietnam War, a kind of way of creating an imaginary life he could have had if he had grown up in Vietnam (moved to the United States when he was two).
From his series Immortality, The Remnants of the Vietnam and American War
"This process deals with the idea of elemental transmigration: the decomposition and composition of matter into other forms. The images of war are part of the leaves, and live inside and outside of them. The leaves express the continuum of war. They contain the residue of the Vietnam War: bombs, blood, sweat, tears, and metals. The dead have been incorporated into the landscape of Vietnam during the cycles of birth, life, and death; through the recycling and transformation of materials, and the creation of new materials. As matter is neither created nor destroyed, but only transformed, the remnants of the Vietnam and American War live on forever in the Vietnamese landscape." - Binh DanhI love all the different ways photography can be used, that it isn't strictly an image on paper - it can become an object, a doorway, anything you want if you can find a way to execute it. I remember reading an interview where he said the process fails to produce a usable image nearly 80% of the time, and reminds me to try to remain patient and not view something working out differently than expected as a failure.
I love how, like you mentioned, there's this whole idea of impermanence reflected in the process, and in the final work itself, considering that the three images are on objects that would typically be "discarded" - decaying leaves, a napkin or old cloth, etc.
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