My photographs celebrate the splendor and variety of the
natural and human heritage of planet earth, and try to convey to the
viewer, in a visually beautiful form, the emotions of being in some
special places.
For the past twenty years, I have been privileged to travel, trek, and climb in
some of the most remote and beautiful corners of the earth.
Laying down in a colorful meadow dense
with wildflowers or clinging precariously to a vertical icy mountain
face, listening to the silence of desert sand dunes or to the calls of
a bustling floating market might seem like very different experiences,
however, I feel that they share the same life-affirming benefits. In a
society where too many artificial sensory input are available, these
simple experiences can make us feel more connected to the world. They
give us a sense of beauty, chaotic order, and liveliness which enrich
our souls.
Through my photography, I have tried to convey these feelings of
wonder and passion to the viewers. I seek to give a sense of place and
time by letting the viewer see through the images as much as I
saw myself, and experience the same emotions, although he is just
presented with a partial representation. To do so, I carefully select and
interpret visually the subjects so that their essence is revealed,
often going to a great deal of effort just to create a single image.
It is my wish that these images will inspire the viewers the desire to
discover for themselves the locations depicted. I like to emphasize
the beauty, as I feel that aesthetic appreciation will lift our soul and
eventually lead to awareness and respect for the natural and cultural
diversity of our planet.
Born in France, from Vietnamese parents,
I was originally trained as a scientist (Ecole Polytechnique X84, PhD University of Paris).
Before becoming a full-time photographer,
I made a few contributions to the fields of Artificial
Intelligence and Image Processing (
Research Index still ranks me in the top 1500 most cited computer science authors, out of more than 750,000), detailed in
The Geometry
of Multiple Images (MIT Press, with Olivier Faugeras).
Twenty years ago, my life was transformed by the
wilderness of mountains.
As a climber and mountain guide,
I was initially interested in photography as a
means to communicate to people who weren't there
the wonders I had seen on the high peaks of
the Alps, and subsequently other mountains of the world.
To reach a large public, in 1995, I created my first web
site, the popular Mountain Gallery.
Shortly afterwards, my mountaineering images appeared in
magazines in six countries and the book "Souvenirs from
high places, a history of mountaineering photography" closed with two of my photographs,
suggesting to me that maybe I did not waste my money buying cameras.
Although I am no longer involved in difficult technical climbing,
this dynamic, participatory approach to photography continues these days
with travels, which have taken me to five continents. I am fortunate that my
work could span an immense geographic range, from the coldest mountain on the
earth to tropical islands.
Another turning point happened, ten years ago, when I learned to use the large format camera. In the
process, I happened to create
largeformatphotography.info, considered by some to be the
primary technical resource for large format photography on the web. The
more contemplative approach that this type of exacting and demanding photography promotes,
and the
extremely detailed photos it produces are perfect in conveying
the visual richness of the landscape. In 1993, I set out for
a monumental nature photography project that
had not been completed by any photographer before: documenting
all of America's National Parks with a large format camera.
I explored each of the Parks in depth, making several visits.
My years of experience of outdoor adventuring proved useful when
exploring the backcountry of many Parks
in a variety of ways ranging from hiking
in trail-less terrain
with a 70-lbs backpack
- needed to survive in the wilderness while operating a 5x7 camera -, to paddling kayaks, canoes, and
scuba diving.
Although I am still creating new images for what will most likely be a
lifetime pursuit,
by the summer of 2002, I reached the goal of visiting each of the 58 National Parks at
least once when I set up my camera on the Great Kobuk Sand Dunes in Arctic Alaska (see picture).
I currently live in San Jose, California, with my wife and two children.
Selected Press
-
Quang-Tuan Luong: The National Parks Project,
View Camera Magazine, Sept-Oct 2003
-
Nature photographer points his lens at Congaree, The State, January 5, 2007
-
Xem người Việt đầu tiên triển lãm hình 58 công viên quốc gia Mỹ , Người Việt, August 13, 2008 (in Vietnamese)
-
The Science of Art,
Evergreen Times, August 29, 2008
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