Even though the Universe around us is objectively singular in existence, each individual pair of eyes perceives the world in a way completely unique to their own. Through the different perspectives people possess about this world we coexist in, all of our subjectivities come together to paint a magnificent zoomed-out picture of an objectivity we can never fully comprehend. As a mere piece of that puzzle, my shutter finger is informed by my preconceived worldview, opinions, emotions, and knowledge bases. It has always been and it will always be, and I will always try my absolute best to keep it that way. For the longest time during the beginning stages of my photography journey, I wanted to strive to be an objective photographer, one that attempts to showcase the beauty of the world as it hypothetically purely is, and as everyone is theoretically perceiving it. My reasoning was that, due to the nature of humanity being inherently individualistic, the world as it progresses and as we’ve been introduced to it had always been extremely saturated (photography pun much intended) with individualism, and the Universe as it exists simply acted as a blank canvas for individual brushes with infinitely many sizes and styles of expression to freely paint upon. I, initially, preset a thirst to get to the bottom of that blank canvas, to observe and listen in order to follow each brush stroke back to its source(s), and get to the bottom of what an initial ‘blank canvas’ would look like, and in a very corny sense that idea had led to my endless pursuit of astrophysics, cosmology, and photography. As I grew older and simultaneously into a more mature photographer/artist, I realized that that endeavor might be eternally fruitless. On a micro-social level, while it is true that everything around us is a formation of an individual or a group’s extremely subjective approaches informed by their own preconceived worldviews, as an observable result on a more macro-social level, the pieces fit together seemingly seamlessly and in turn form an ‘objective’ overall picture, effectively minimizing the importance of any conflict, difference, or mismatch that each micro-level piece has with one another. The Universe presents its magnificence in the chaos that it receives from so many channels, and in the midst of all of these chaotic points and objective approaches to the world coming together, patterns emerge, and beauty is revealed in an outward zoom from a grandiose fabric of chaotic infinity.

This particular presentation of my insignificant patch amidst this fabric is my best attempt yet to paint a harmonic imitation picture of the most prominent influences of my upbringing and my character. The muted, saturated look of a pseudo-retro modern neon urban setting is what I’ve grown to love so much. My upbringing in the heart of the Indochina capital of Saigon, Vietnam has also had a profound influence on this directionality, since this city I call home - Saigon - was one that underwent rapid urban industrial and technological expansion upon the basis of a myriad of both Eastern and Western influences since as recent as 1995/96. Among those influences has always been a vibrant civilian night life that prevails throughout every single period of institutional, governmental, and cultural change. Admittedly, my hometown can be quite loud, obnoxious, uncaring, and depressing at times with all of the outdoors karaoke, smelly and busy street food corners, drunkards shouting and catcalling random women, indoor bars completely gassed with fog machines projecting laser light shows alongside a choice of the most generic and uncreative electronic dance mashup music, empty cannisters of cheap beer littered across every sidewalk accessible within a reasonable radial distance of a pub. But it does also serve to display the vibrance (another cheap photography pun, I know) and the ‘full-of-life-ness’ of our city night life, directly influenced by Hong Kong and the likes due to a massive Hong-Konger population and its cultural presence. Nevertheless, I shall digress.

As a Neon Child, night life is extremely important to me. The night is when everyone and everything lets their guard down, when all facades we put up in the name of productive human advancement are stripped down, and people return to their truest and most comfortable states. When darkness settles, only the most vibrant characteristics of humans and locations come through. My camera is present simply to observe, capture, and appreciate. Through my artistic appreciation of these most beautiful human frames and moments, I do vainly hope I can tap into anyone’s curious eyes and show them how magnificent humanity and the world can be, even though I myself struggle to grasp the fact more often than I would ever be willing to admit.