ALUMNI IN ACTION
Photography of Belonging
By Julia Halprin Jackson
Binh Danh鈥檚 unique approach to photography transcends time and space, engaging viewers in conversations about belonging, identity and geography.
In fifth grade, when Binh Danh took his first camera to his school鈥檚 outdoor education experience 鈥� his first time camping 鈥� the middle schooler had a revelation.
鈥淢y father bought me that camera to bring on the trip,鈥� remembers Danh, 鈥�02 BFA Photography, associate professor of photography at San Jos茅 State. 鈥淚t was this instrument that allowed me to look through the viewfinder and point out things I wanted to remember. I could take pictures as a way to remember the experience. That鈥檚 when I fell in love with photography.鈥�
That first trip into the wilderness awakened a few of Danh鈥檚 important artistic impulses 鈥� the camera offered him newfound autonomy, empowering him to choose where or who to capture, and the time outdoors helped him feel more at home in Northern California. Born in Vietnam in 1977, Danh and his family escaped on a boat in 1979, eventually landing in San Jos茅. His father opened a television repair shop, where Danh worked most afternoons after school, the white noise of tvs buzzing. When he wasn鈥檛 at the shop, he studied landscape photography in department store catalogs, fascinated by images of national parks.
鈥淚t only occurred to me in my adult life why I was interested in landscape photography,鈥� he says. 鈥淕rowing up as a Vietnamese American, I came across a lot of pictures of the Vietnam War. I don鈥檛 know what I was looking for, but I was fascinated by images of Vietnam, a country that existed so much in my imagination. That was what made me interested in landscape photography.
鈥淎s a child, I was trying to understand that history, and it was something that my parents didn鈥檛 talk about. So I absorbed that history through media and Hollywood films, as well as photojournalism.鈥�
Binh Danh. Photo by Erin de Jauregui.
鈥淧hotography is about recording the past because you want someone in the future to remember it. But for me, it鈥檚 also about the present moment, especially when you see yourself reflected back in a picture. As a result of the interesting negotiation between time and space within the photographic medium, you鈥檙e also projecting into the future.鈥�
鈥� Binh Danh
Past, present and future
As a young artist, photography represented an important link to Dinh鈥檚 cultural identity. While still in high school, Danh enrolled in San Jos茅 State courses through a program called Step to College.
鈥淚 took a photography course and fell in love with the teachers, the professors and the whole 91传媒厂 community,鈥� he says, adding that for the first time, he understood that creating and teaching art was a viable career.
Perhaps his most celebrated body of work as an artist emerged after Danh completed his undergraduate studies at 91传媒厂 and earned an MFA from Stanford. In his highly acclaimed series of chlorophyll prints, he used photosynthesis to directly print portraits onto the surface of leaves. In addition, he discovered unique ways to present portraits from the Vietnam War by using 19th century daguerreotypes, a photographic process that involves creating images on silver plates.
鈥淒aguerreotypes are created through a photographic process invented in 1839, so it was the first photographic process ever,鈥� he explains. 鈥淚 usually tell my students to imagine a time when there was no photography at all. Everything was paintings and sculpture and representational art.鈥�
Found Buddha, 2008
Chlorophyll print and resin
11 x 9 inches image provided by Binh Danh
El Capitan, Yosemite, June 20, 2014
Daguerreotype
12 x 10 inches image provided by Binh Danh
that daguerreotypes are created when a silver plate is made sensitive to light by fuming it over iodine and bromine vapor. The plate is then exposed to light in a camera and developed over warm mercury vapor to reveal the latent image. The image is composed onto a copper plate covered with a thin layer of pure silver. Since the image is not on a paper fiber support, a daguerreotype will outlast most any other contemporary photograph. He says the photographs emerge as mirror images, enabling the viewer to see themselves reflected back.
This technique is as powerful in Danh鈥檚 portraits of the victims of the Khmer Rouge genocide as it is in his landscape images of Yosemite National Park. He cites Ken Burns鈥� 2009 documentary series, 鈥�: America's Best Idea,鈥� as a major influence.
鈥淔or the viewer to see themselves with these great American landscapes, it brings up questions of identity, history and even nationalism,鈥� he says, adding that visiting and experiencing national parks as a first-generation American helps him feel rooted in a sense of home. Daguerreotypes allow him to introduce places like Yosemite to fellow immigrants who may have a hard time picturing themselves in national parks, perhaps because they didn鈥檛 yet feel like the U.S. was 鈥渉ome.鈥�
A 2010 recipient of the Eureka Fellowship from the Fleishhacker Foundation and a 2012 featured artist at the 18th Biennale in Sydney, Australia, Danh鈥檚 work is in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The DeYoung Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Center for Creative Photography, the George Eastman Museum, and many others. In 2024, a collection of 20 years of his artwork was published in a monograph entitled This fall, he was the guest of honor at the San Jos茅 Institute of Contemporary Art, where his work will be on display.
鈥淧hotography is about recording the past because you want someone in the future to remember it,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut for me, it鈥檚 also about the present moment, especially when you see yourself reflected back in a picture. As a result of the interesting negotiation between time and space within the photographic medium, you鈥檙e also projecting into the future.鈥�
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Top image: Lower Yosemite Falls, Yosemite, CA June 20, 2014
Daguerreotype
12 x 10 inches courtesy of Binh Danh
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