A girl rides a T-rex while a boy hangs on to its stout front legs. An elderly woman in red heels and sunglasses sits cross-armed, surrounded by piles of pastel toys. Men with horse heads sit within a car parked sideways across a night road, the interior glowing a crimson red. This is the surreal world of Nguyễn Anh Hào, a 22-year-old photographer based in Saigon. His work is always subtly off. Light comes from weird directions, gravity seems to have different rules, and characters are very out of place. It’s a strange and mysterious world with a touch of levity that bridges fashion and art photography.
当霸王龙成为女人的坐骑捕获年轻男子；穿着精致的老太太坐在地上，成堆的彩色玩具围绕在身旁；深夜，马男们西装革履，坐在泛着霓虹色灯光的商务轿车内——这些风格怪异的作品竟都是时尚大片，均来自 22 岁胡志明市摄影师 Nguyễn Anh Hào 所打造的超现实世界。他的作品总是透露出微妙的诡谲怪诞——不同寻常的光照、不再成立的重力定律、还有与周围环境格格不入的角色。在这个神秘且怪诞的世界，一切飘忽而难以捉摸，弥漫着时尚与艺术相融的摄影美学姿色。
Nguyễn picked up the camera three years ago when he dropped out of university and decided to strike out on his own instead. That characteristic independence colors his work, which peers into the mind of an outsider—someone who forges their own path despite the loneliness that can accompany such a lifestyle. But he’s drawn others into his orbit, working with edgy local brands like Feng System and legacy outlets like Le Official. “I didn’t really care about fashion until I got into photography,” he says. “But fashion and art combined leads to some great pictures.”
Nguyễn 三年前开始接触摄影，当时他从大学辍学，决定独自出去闯闯。如此特立独行的个性在作品中也有体现。他的作品透露着局外人的心态，即使缺乏旁人的理解，也要坚持自己的路线。这股子楞劲儿却在圈内引起关注，此前，他就曾获得 Feng System 等本地前卫品牌和 Le Official 等业内大牌合作的机会。“在拿起相机之前，我其实并不关心时尚，”他说道，“只不过，时尚和艺术的结合确实会产生一些很棒的效果。”
Although Nguyễn’s work is heavy on world creation, portraits are always front and center. Sometimes it can be difficult to tell when something is a personal series or an editorial shoot, and that’s part of the appeal. In Alita’s Scandal, a beautiful celebrity is followed around after the fallout of being publicly shamed. In one shot, she stands in a rainstorm wearing a metallic red-carpet dress as a beam of light from some unknown place illuminates her face. In another, she stands in a dirt field with black sweats and a winter hat, another cold beam of light glaring across her face. The final shot is erotic, and she sheds her worry for what people say, giving herself over to the passion of another woman.
在 Nguyễn 的创作构思中，个人始终是要考虑的因素。透过作品，有时甚至很难区分个人与商业时尚作品的界限，而这也恰恰是他作品的魅力所在。在系列作品《Alita’s Scandal（阿丽塔的丑闻）》中，他用镜头讲述一位遭遇公开羞辱的女星。其中一幅作品，女星穿着金属质感的连衣裙站在暴雨中，一束莫名的光线照亮她的面庞；另一张照片中，她身处荒郊，背后投来执勤人员意味不明的微笑；故事情节在系列最后一张照片中得以释怀，女星显然已对公众的视角视而不见，完全投入到同性之爱的怀抱。
Sex and sexuality are common themes for Nguyễn. “I think it reveals people’s raw and honest selves, it shows their most human side,” he says. One series features an elderly white man and a young Asian man grappling with their relationship. The old man is at once dominated by his latex-covered partner and then cradled as the partner dons a wedding gown. In the final shot, they lay face to face as the partner cries and a sign in the background reads, “Live, laugh, love.” It’s good advice but not always easy to live by.
The Cô Tấm series draws on Viet folktales for inspiration. It’s loosely based on the story of Tấm and Cám, which is very similar to Cinderella and features a poor stepdaughter who meets a king and loses a slipper. In the Vietnamese story, she’s trying to raise shrimp and fish but the step-sister keeps sabotaging her. Nguyễn substitutes dinosaurs for aquatic life, so a variety of plastic Jurassic creatures fill the pages. They’re outlandish and comical, both tiny and small, their painted skin glowing brightly under clear rays of mystical light. At the end of the series, Cám is off the ball in a black áo dài dress, walking through a war trench toward fireworks that light the sky like artillery.
性和性取向是他作品中的常见主题，Nguyễn 说：“性揭示了人们原始和真实的自我，是最人性化的一面。”他另一组系列展示了一位年长的白人男子和一名年轻亚裔男子之间的情感纠葛。亚裔男子身着 BDSM 套装与白人男性进行私密游戏，又会换上婚纱彼此拥抱。系列的最后一张照片，他们四目相对，亚裔男子泪水哭花了眼妆，身后粉色的标语赫然出现在门框上——“Live, laugh, love”（生活、笑、爱）。
《Cô Tấm》系列灵感来自越南民间故事《碎米与米糠》（Tấm and Cám）。故事与西方的“灰姑娘”非常相似，讲述了类似继女遇到王子并无意间丢掉鞋子的故事。原版故事主人翁叫做米糠，每日繁养鱼虾，却遭受同父异母姐姐的阻挠。照片中，Nguyễn 用恐龙模型代替虾和鱼的意象，在场景灯光的照射下闪闪发光。系列的最后照片中，米糠穿着黑色的越南传统奥黛裙，穿过战壕，走向黑暗中星星点点的烟火。
Even though a lot of Nguyễn’s work is for other people’s companies, it’s still very personal to him. Perhaps the most personal of his projects is the editorial for women’s wear brand Wephobia. It stars his grandmother and is shot in his hometown of Bù Đốp, a three hour drive north of Saigon. It begins with her flashing big smiles under cool, sunny skies. Her smile falters in a strange scene where she juggles a naked baby and baby goat. Things get weirder and more dejected as the shoot goes on. In one, she sits on the floor complacent but uncomfortable, surrounded by abandoned toys. In a diptych, she alternately sits slumped at a vanity desk and then lies listless on the floor in a pink room. Perhaps the strongest image finds her sitting alone, smoking in the dark as snow swirls and a cake sits uneaten. Themes of isolation are prominent, and yet its a celebratory project: “It was a present for her,” he says. “She was willing to do every pose I asked, not a single complaint! At the end, I think she was happy with the result. That’s what matters the most to me.”
系列第一张照片，是明媚的天空之下，祖母露出灿烂的笑容，身边有山羊与婴儿相伴；而随着镜头的切换，笑容则逐渐崩解，伴随的是场景的深沉，氛围转向了怪诞和哀伤。她坐在地上，一副怅然若失的模样，周围摆满了废弃玩具；或是坐在粉红色房间的梳妆台前暗自神伤。最令人难忘的一张照片中，祖母坐在黑暗中抽烟，四周雪花纷飞，旁边是一个人吃不完的蛋糕，透露出令人难忘的孤独，“我的这次创作一是为品牌拍摄，二是为祖母拍摄一套写真，”他说，“看似意想不到的转变，其实描写出人生的起伏。整个拍摄过程祖母都很开心，这对我来说是才最重要的。”
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Contributor: Mike Steyels
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li
