Roots & Worlds – The Hidden Face of Vietnam: The Fall and Rise of Photographer Khánh Ký

Description

In the inaugural talk as part of Roots & Worlds, Vietnamese-Canadian visual artist & researcher Jacqueline Hoàng Nguyễn will shed light on the understudied life and work of photographer Khánh Ký. Recognized as the official portraitist of all the Governors in Indochina, Khánh Ký navigated with ability the French élite as well as the flourishing Vietnamese bourgeoisie while entrenched in the nationalist movement.

The portraits produced by Khánh Ký reveal a detournement of bourgeois aesthetics put to use for the local disenfranchised population. The commercial success of his studios during the first half of the XX century, from Haiphong, Hanoi, Nam Dinh to Saigon, is a testimony of a short-lived nascent counter-culture, striving for emancipation and modernity. Second, Nguyễn will discuss her strategies to integrate archival research into the production of a new artwork.