IN COLORS PROJECT
Man-nature, by Khánh Bùi Phú
ARTICLE BY LUMICROMA
AUGUST, 2022
"Checking Fishing Nets", Honorable Mention at the 1st IN COLORS PROJECT, is a poem about man-nature harmony and the need to preserve it.
Almost too perfect, this image was captured at Tuyen Lam Lake in Vietnam. Water and an old fisherman going about his morning routine make up a watercolor full of light, color, and transparency. It is what you see. That is what is there, indeed. But the rest of the narrative remains to be seen.
This liquid landscape began to appear in 1987, with the construction of a dam on the Tia River. The Tuyen Lam is, therefore, a large artificial reservoir that was appropriated by nature. Time ended up forming an ecosystem made of sensitive balances. Where there is abundance, there is also enormous fragility.
Isolated from society, without a home, the local fishermen are nomads living on rafts. In their daily activity, they use traditional handmade nets with a bamboo structure. They master a fishing system that does not give in to haste, that marries itself to the lake.
Khánh Bùi Phú, from the city of Da Lat, is a photographer with a passion for the scenic and cultural richness of his country. By spreading it to the world, he is contributing to its protection.
"Checking Fishing Nets" is part of an extensive project, running for more than four years, about the fishing communities, with ancient customs, that belong to Vietnam's aquatic environments, just like the fish or the clumps of vegetation - they are not there, they are from there.
With "Ancient craft of nomadic fishing in Vietnamese rivers and lakes", the name of the project, the photographer makes the defense of the biosphere and of these socially vulnerable communities, whose free way of life, on the tightrope, must be safeguarded. Is the warning imbued with beauty? It is, one need only look at this photograph.
Almost too perfect, this image was captured at Tuyen Lam Lake in Vietnam. Water and an old fisherman going about his morning routine make up a watercolor full of light, color, and transparency. It is what you see. That is what is there, indeed. But the rest of the narrative remains to be seen.
This liquid landscape began to appear in 1987, with the construction of a dam on the Tia River. The Tuyen Lam is, therefore, a large artificial reservoir that was appropriated by nature. Time ended up forming an ecosystem made of sensitive balances. Where there is abundance, there is also enormous fragility.
Isolated from society, without a home, the local fishermen are nomads living on rafts. In their daily activity, they use traditional handmade nets with a bamboo structure. They master a fishing system that does not give in to haste, that marries itself to the lake.
Khánh Bùi Phú, from the city of Da Lat, is a photographer with a passion for the scenic and cultural richness of his country. By spreading it to the world, he is contributing to its protection.
"Checking Fishing Nets" is part of an extensive project, running for more than four years, about the fishing communities, with ancient customs, that belong to Vietnam's aquatic environments, just like the fish or the clumps of vegetation - they are not there, they are from there.
With "Ancient craft of nomadic fishing in Vietnamese rivers and lakes", the name of the project, the photographer makes the defense of the biosphere and of these socially vulnerable communities, whose free way of life, on the tightrope, must be safeguarded. Is the warning imbued with beauty? It is, one need only look at this photograph.