Phu Khanh Bui
Viet Nam | B. 1987
“Vietnam is extremely beautiful; it has a unique culture and traditions, a heroic history and a friendly people.” The definition comes from Khánh Bùi Phú, a freelance photographer committed to presenting his country's natural, cultural and human heritage.
It is more than a passion. Through photography, Khánh Bùi Phú – who was born and lives in Da Lat, city in the province of Lam Dong – is committed to protect a legacy that is as abundant (in fact, of extraordinary beauty) as delicate.
In his work, reality seems like a creation of dream and art, almost too perfect. Yet what is shown exists. And it deserves this rare look.
Khánh Bùi Phú is doubly represented in the React! exhibition, with "In the First Spring" and "Checking Fishing Nets" (Honorable Mention IN COLORS PROJECT 21-22), two photographs from the project "Ancient craft of nomadic fishing in Vietnamese rivers and lakes".
Photo by Phú Khánh Bùi
INTERVIEW
FEELING VIETNAM
How was your passion for photography born?
In 2015, while exploring a national biosphere reserve, a lake, in support of a nature conservation movement, I realized how beautiful, majestic and abundant the natural world is. The aquatic environment, the forest, and the people, the local communities, form an ecosystem in harmony, they are elements in an intimate symbiosis.
At that moment, I thought it would be interesting to register and share all this beauty. This inspired me to study photography.
Besides, I was born and raised in a country with a long history full of heroes, a unique culture. Through photography, I also try to convey information about cultural tourism in Vietnam. The intention is to pass on to everyone a unique message about the culture, life, people and landscape of my country.
From your experience as a photographer, what moves you the most?
My country has come out of a war, out of poverty, and step by step it is developing. The State has done a lot to improve people's standard of living, but, as in any society, there will always be rich and poor. I have traveled to many places in my country, and the vulnerability never fails to move.
On one trip I was moved by the story of an elderly woman who worked hard to raise five children and try to give them a better life, a good job. Instead, the sons could not take care of the mother, feed her, so she, already at an advanced age, still had to catch shrimp and crabs in rivers and lakes and cultivate rice and corn to survive.
I gave her some money, even though I had little in my pocket for my long trip. It was the right thing to do. In the following days, I slept badly, I felt a great sadness. And I remembered my parents. Even today, as I share this memory, I am moved.
Is there any information about your work that you want to share?
[smiles] I have a long project going on, I am about 70% of the way there. The photographs selected for the IN COLORS PROJECT by Lumicroma are part of that project, which I have been working on for more than four years. It is called "Ancient craft of nomadic fishing in Vietnamese rivers and lakes".
I should have finished it by now, but the pandemic has made it really hard to do, financially speaking. It is almost laughable, but the truth is that I am currently struggling financially to continue my projects...
CREDENTIALS
Second award (Silver medal): The Independent Photo Award - Emerging Talent Award
2021
Winner (Gold medal), Gump Photo contest, Hong Kong
Winner (Gold medal), Shoot The Frame, September international competition
Winner (Gold medal), UNPUBLISHED PHOTO, searching for new talents and new art forms around the world by the Musec Lugano Cultural Museum (Switzerland) and the 29 Arts In Progress Gallery, Italy
Second award (Silver medal): Highly Commended badge awarded by Siena Award
Second award (Silver medal): ND Photo Awards (Travel/Culture);
Second award (Silver medal): RPS - The Royal Photographic Society in IGPOTY photo contest - International Garden Photographer of the Year, UK;
2018
Winner (Gold medal), Ikei Photo contest, Spain
In Colors Project – REACT! by Lumicroma, Portugal
Musec Museo Lugano Cultural Museum, Switzerland
Related Exhibitions
IN COLORS PROJECT | REACT!
The broadness ... Ler Mais
The broadness to which the theme is open is represented in this set of 50 artworks by photographers from 22 nationalities. React! to what, from what perspective? The possibility of endless interpretations is mirrored in an exhibition in which the reaction is as much in the photographed "scene" itself as in the impression of the person who photographed it, and also, and always, in the eye of the person who appreciates the photograph.
In this realm, there is the image of time and place, of many places and many qualities of time. There is the beauty of moments, spaces, cultures and traditions. There is a whole scale of emotions. There is the poetry of landscapes and the destruction wrought by war. There is fantasy in improbable scenarios. There are global concerns, personal instances. Sometimes the weight of existence; sometimes the lightness of laughter in the face of death.
There remains, still, the certainty of a kaleidoscopic world, in permanent change, so that stories repeat themselves. Because man repeats himself. The continuity of life is also maintained. It is in the faces of many. It is in the colors. It is in the light of black and white. It is in the instinct. In the will. In what is lost, in what is conquered. Ler Menos
IN COLORS PROJECT | HOME
In 74 photographs, 32 authors from 14 nationalities give us the most poignant portrait of what we are, what we do and what we are failing at. Because HOME has smiles and exposed wounds. It shows a sense of belonging and an absurd lack of ground. It is the human cloak of a thousand patches to which we all belong.
This is our Home. And we can't close our eyes.
IN COLORS PROJECT - an initiative without borders by Lumicroma - reclaims the relevance of photography as a socio-cultural record and artistic intervention. Through the convergence of experiences, aesthetics and visions, it aims to trace, every year, the big picture of the times in which we live. Ler Menos
AUSCHWITZ: TRACE(S) OF A LEGACY
To keep the memory alive appeals to reflection and to vigilanc ... Ler Mais
To keep the memory alive appeals to reflection and to vigilance and encourages the commitment of future generations, so that, through these, the voices of the survivors, which will soon no longer be heard, can echoe.
We know the history, we have seen the films and we have read the books. We have always been told that Auschwitz is the true symbol of Holocaust, since more than one million jews were murdered there. A factory of killing people! Gypsies, ho-mossexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses and political dissidents also suffered in this dark place.
We have read about the hideous experiments carried out by Mengele in Auschwitz. We have seen photographies of the survivors, of the corpses, of the crematoriums, of the abandoned personal belongings. We started our journey to Poland with the thought that we would be prepared to face the interpretative centre of the Holocaust and, through it, find the answer to our restlessness: how could this have been humanly possible?
During the journey, we revisited those with whom we had previously shared the feeling of the concentration camp. All the pages, testimonies and faces remained well alive in our memories.
We have arrived, the presence in Auschwitz overwhelms us!
No memory, read, studied, seen or heard can be compared to standing right there. In the deafening silence of that place, which carries within itself the imense loss of human sense, the question of Theodor Adorno gains strenght: How can poetry be possible after Auschwitz Ler Menos
PARAÍSO DE COURA
Alfredo Cunha's eye, attentive and sharp, documents this magic, this spirit of brotherhood, this collective happiness. The joy of the audience and the euphoria of the bands, who never forget th ... Ler Mais
Alfredo Cunha's eye, attentive and sharp, documents this magic, this spirit of brotherhood, this collective happiness. The joy of the audience and the euphoria of the bands, who never forget that breathtaking human wall and the generous way they are received. It captures the sweetness, the serenity, the deepest peace, the shared love, the respect, the amazement, the unique energy of the Taboão river, contrasted with the exaltation, the apotheosis, the celebration and the joy, that sacred emotion that Almada Negreiros once said was "the most serious thing in life".
Year after year, we need the Paredes de Coura Festival to recharge the batteries of passion, to dispel the mediocrity of the grayest days, to cure the diseases of the sadness that makes us pale and to chase away the city carrion that burrows into our bones. To fill ourselves with beauty, euphoria and the deepest peace, in divine communion with nature. On pilgrimage, in a perpetual return to magic.