Recently, the experimental photographer Binh Danh has traveled the countrydocumenting National Parks in large-format daguerreotypes. Danh’s works capture dreamlike territories of the canyon and other idealized natural spaces, but rather than presenting an unchanging composition, the super refl ective surfaces of Danh’s silvery images involve the viewers, centering their existence as a part of the landscape. Making daguerreotypes of the National Parks is a way to insert my viewers into this landscape asa form of citizenship, as if saying, “You belong here.” A visit to a National Park is something that anchors and roots us on this continent: a sense of belonging. For some, it’s at the end of the immigrant experience to feel more American than ever.
Born in Vietnam in 1977, Danh’s family fled to the United States two years later. They continued observing traditional Vietnamese customs, especially Buddhist worship of ancestors. Thus, says Danh, he grew up “meditating on death and its influence on the living.” More recently, Danh has experimented with Daguerreotypes—a 19th century photographic technique in which a light-sensitive, highly polished, silver-plated copper sheet is exposed to light and produces a single image.
Danh received his MFA from Stanford University in 2004. His work is widely collected and exhibited, including at the 18th Biennale of Sydney, Australia.
