A collection of 130 photos of women by noted Vietnamese photographer Nguyen Quoc Dung is being published this month in a retrospective of his 20-year career.

'Mua Nang Phai' tends to focus on simple single colours (with warm shades) in peaceful spaces where time seems to stop.

The collection, entitled ‘Mua Nang Phai’ (Season of Faded Sunlight, includes black and white, colour and photoshopped photos capturing Vietnamese women in traditional ‘Ao Dai’ (long dress) and ‘Ao Yem’ (brassieres).

“These are the best photos I have taken in the past 20 years,” Mr Dung, who is better known as Dzung Art, told Viet Nam News.  “At first, I took photos of women in traditional costumes to collect materials for drawings.  The more photos I took, the more inspiration I found and the more encouragements I got from audience members.”

Women in brassieres.

The photos reflect Mr Dung’s start as a painter, being a combination of painting and photography.

“Each kind of art (like painting, photography…) has its own language and life,” commented painter Le Thiet Cuong, “They don’t have to depend on one another to co-exist.  But when all these arts mix in an artwork, they complement each other.  This requires the professonalism of an artist.”

“In ‘Mua Nang Phai’, Dzung Art succeeded in doing that,” he added.

The painting feature in Mr Dung’s photos is more like graphics with flat surfaces, very few details and clear outlines, Mr Cuong noted.

Young women in 'Ao Dai'

Mr Dung’s women are featured in traditional long dresses, brassieres, long skirts posing in old houses, small ponds, by wells at a pagoda, in front of a village gate, or women floating candles on a river, or gently rowing on a river.

“In our modern daily hustle and bustle, we rarely come across traditional long dress of brassieres,” Mr Dung said.  “That’s why through these photos, I want to take the audience to quiet moments to watch, feel the beauty of traditional costumes as well as the grace of Vietnamese women.  I believe this is my own contribution to preserve traditional culture.”

The ‘Mua Nang Phai’ photos tend to focus on simple, warm shades, and the women have a gentle beauty yet exude energy.

“Dzung Art is a greedy man, who always combines in a photo 2 factors of journalistic photography and art photography,” Mr Cuong said, “He cares about content and form while taking a photo.  He seems to kill the depth in traditional photography when putting the camera right in front of the subject, not moving it up or down.

Mr Dung's photos are noted a good combination between painting and photography. VNS Photos Nguyen Quoc Dung

“‘Season of Faded Sunlight’ means the past season of sunlight,” Mr Dung said.  “It doesn’t completely disappear but gradually fades in our minds.”

“Traditional long dress and brassieres are my focus through all my creation process,” he said. “I think these are not costumes that women wear on special occasions like women wear the transformed versions nowadays.  To me, the costumes are beautiful as simple daily wear women wore in the past century.”

The book is being officially launched nationwide in August while the photos is being displayed at a solo photo exhibition titled ‘Gio Hoi An’ (Hoi An Wind) in Quang Nam Province's Hoi An City between 16 and 22 August.

(Source: VNS/ DA NANG Today)