Over the past two decades, the Da Nang artistic photography has transformed with digital technology and has undergone many changes. It can be seen that no matter how much digital technology develops in the field of photography, artistic photography always goes hand in hand with that development. The conveniences of digital technology have helped photographers improve the quality of their works and affirm their names.

Da Nang photographers are at work. Photo: DOAN HAO LUONG

Constantly updating modern technology

Photographer Mr. Van Sinh, the former Chairman of the Da Nang Artistic Photography Association, said that in today’s era, anyone can take photos and take them anytime, anywhere and share and comment on the internet quickly.

Photography has become popular and is an indispensable joy for everyone when travelling or meeting each other. To facilitate operations and improve image quality, the Da Nang Artistic Photography has quickly and proficiently approached digital recording equipment lines with many new equipment lines, including aerial recording equipment (fly cam).

Along with that, the Da Nang Artistic Photography Association regularly organises many creative field trips, seminars, and workshops on expertise, thereby helping members improve their awareness and creative thinking, approach the reality of life to have creative choices in expressing their works. Photographers and photographers constantly update post-processing software to select and filter errors encountered during operations, exploit the utilities of the software to complete the work.

In particular, in the global internet environment, all information is connected and shared quickly, without limits. The Da Nang artistic photography has known how to exploit and apply it appropriately for professional activities such as sharing images with the public, media agencies, at the same time, participating in domestic and international competitions conveniently.

In early October 2024, the Da Nang Art Photography Association launched its own website with the access name http://dapa.com.vn. From this website, the association has organised updates on activities and photo competitions online at many levels within the city, region, and country, as well as organising international artistic photography competitions, thereby creating favourable conditions for members to learn and improve many new genres of world art photography.

However, besides the conveniences that digital technology brings, there are also disadvantages for photographers.

Mr. Mai Quang Hien, a member of the Da Nang Artistic Photography Association, said that not only photography but all other fields are in the strong trend of digital transformation, technology transformation, AI, so every step of creating a product will be much easier and more convenient than before.

However, copying and imitating each other's ideas is also very easy. Almost all of your ideas are influenced, similar to other people's products, in conditions that everyone can do, especially cameras and photography.

Creating a personal mark through your work

Artistic photography is a special job, requiring talent and high creativity. Therefore, in addition to accessing digital technology, photography artists and photographers must constantly innovate and apply digital techniques to improve the quality of their works. If they master the conveniences of digital technology, they will affirm their name and works in the domestic and international arena.

Mr. Nguyen Anh Cuong, a member of the Viet Nam Association of Photographic Artists, member of the Da Nang Association of Literature and Arts said, in the current flow of technology, everyone has a smartphone in their hands, so they can take their own photos. This is both a pressure and a motivation, requiring photographers to strive and be more creative to create works with bold artistic and technical features that only cameras can do.

Phones are very convenient when they always carry the utility of taking quick photos, but they have features that phones are limited in. Professional cameras, applied with the thinking, ideas and techniques of the photographer, will produce works with bold artistic qualities and help preserve valuable moments.

Mr. Mai Quang Hien said that, in addition to improving knowledge about technology, approaching new things, new equipment, new photo editing software, photographers also need to be creative, have a passion for the profession, for the topics they love and must express their personal elements when creating products.

“When everyone in the world takes photos every minute, every second and there are billions of photos created by humans and AI, what to take, what content to express, what topics to aim for is called their work is very necessary for photographers. Nowadays, taking photos is much easier than before. Therefore, photographers need to make their photos make viewers feel emotions and look at them for a long time, that is truly photography”, Mr. Hien affirmed.

In addition to the efforts of photographers to explore and learn, the Da Nang Artistic Photography Association also needs to organise many seminars on new issues of contemporary photography, as well as new achievements of digital technology to help members quickly update the utilities for photography activities.

In addition, it encourages creativity, diversity in the style of expressing works, and at the same time creates a playground for young photographers to integrate and develop. Members need to focus on depth in creativity, diversity in genres, especially focusing on building typical artistic images to create works that can stand the test of time.

Only then can photographers strongly promote the value of art photography, thereby preserving and keeping precious moments of local history and culture, contributing to the overall development of literature and art of the city.

Reporting by DOAN HAO LUONG - Translating by A.THU