This is an unpublished project premiered today on C41 Magazine.
Michael Nguyen has been living in Munich since 2007 and has dedicated himself entirely to art again since 2018. He is an artist, not a photographer but more a photographic poet or something he himself could not define. He moves away from the mainstream, at the same time blurs genres. Most of the time, he focuses on small, ordinary things but through the subjective lens, give them new perspectives, a new soul. “Michael Nguyen’s photography is the art of showing more than you can see. Making visible – worshipping the invisible, he walks with the third eye of a wanderer through the visual adventure of life.” Since 2018 he is editor-in-chief of the Online Magazine for Photography and Art TAGREE.
About ‘Frames’ – words by Michael Nguyen:
We live in frames and we see this world in frames. Frames made of our flesh and bones, of our attachments & possessions. Frames made of social conventions, of our biases, of our prejudices. Frames made of our fear, hatred, and misery. They protect us, support us but also constrain and imprison us. They hold us back from seeing what’s true and what’s beyond the horizon of our mortality, of our limited perspective.
But we can escape, we can break those concrete walls, reach out and touch infinity or something we don’t know yet. Because they cannot contain our wildest dreams, our larger than life imagination, our deepest hope, our unshakable faith, our truest compassion and immense love for someone. Those things set us free and then we can see the frames that we used to live in.
The works in the series are in different styles. Some of them belong to the field of experimental photography. This stylistic device is also used to artistically elaborate the limiting frames in our lives, which have now been additionally imposed on us by Covid-19.
Some of the photographs show everyday situations during the restrictions in the Corona pandemic, such as the picture “On the boat” where part of the benches are locked to keep the passengers at a minimum distance. Despite this restriction people try to enjoy the boat ride and take pictures of themselves or cuddle. The picture “Urban elements # 100” shows
a “lonely” car on Munich’s Theresienwiese, the place where the Oktoberfest normally takes place, which was cancelled this year due to the Corona Pandemic. Covid-19 forces many people to spend their free time on their balcony (picture “Summertime”). On the image “Alone at the water” you can see a man who enjoys in Corona times the silence in a bathing area of the Starnberger See near Munich. Seems he is looking for his suncream.
The works of “Frames” are taken from 2020 on, mainly in Munich area.
