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Young artist won many international awards with highland photos

After 6 years, photographer Nguyen Huu Thong won more than 40 domestic and international awards, impressing with his life photos and highland portraits.

Photographer Nguyen Huu Thong (1987) started taking documentaries in 2012 but did not really engage in this art until 2015. His forte in photography is his works of capturing the rhythm of life in the Northern highlands, his hometown of Bac Giang, and press photos and portraits with many new angles.

During his photography career, he has won over 40 national and international awards. For the first time participating in the big playground, Mr. Thong won the second prize of the 2015 National Youth Photography Festival “Playing by the wall of childhood” taken in Ha Giang. In 2017, Mr. Thong joined the Literature and Art Association of Bac Giang province and became a member of the Vietnam Association of Photographers.

The photo “Breakfast at the fair” taken in Dong Van, Ha Giang won a special prize at the Smithsonian American Magazine’s Annual Photo Contest 2018. In 2021, the photo ranked first in the Food category on the table. Pink Lady Food Photography International Food Competition.

Most recently, Mr. Thong also won the first prize at the Vincent Van Gogh Photo Awards 2021 and held a solo exhibition of 25 photos with the theme of Human Experience in May 2021 in the US. Before that, the outstanding awards to mention are the second prize of the National Youth Photography Festival 2015; silver medal at Art Photo Festival of 16 Northern mountainous provinces in 2015, 2017, 2019; bronze medal in National Art Photo 2020; three silver and bronze prizes, encouraging the International Art Photo Contest in Vietnam 2019, 2021…

Ha Giang was the first place Mr. Thong worked, attached, and spent a lot of time shooting, so he had the most impressive photos. Since 2012, every time he goes to take a photo in Ha Giang is a different emotion, fascinated by the scenery of the seasons, the people to the cultural life, Mr. Thong also considers Ha Giang as his second hometown. me.

The photo “Plowing road on the fields” was taken in May 2012 in Xin Man district. Every afternoon after work, he roamed alone to explore the village, and the scene of the woman carrying her child while harrowing the fields left a deep impression on the young artist.

The work “Early market” was taken in October 2015 with the image of H’Mong women leading cows to sell at Dong Van fair, Ha Giang.

“I think she had to get up very early to walk from the village and be at the market since early morning when I arrived, I saw her standing at the edge of the market, there was one detail that made me regret that I could not write in time. The lovely moment when both the cow and its owner fell asleep, “said Thong.

The author believes that “photography is about running after emotions”, so the path with his passion for photography will have no end and no peak, anything is beautiful and creates a work.

In 2015, while wandering on Ma Pi Leng’s pass, he caught sight of a H’Mong woman carrying bundles of trees on her back with her face down looking at the road, her feet still walking forward, behind the mountains. duplicate message. It was an emotional moment that suddenly appeared in front of his eyes and was named “Mountain Woman” by Mr. The photo won the Consolation prize in the Tourism section of the 11th International Art Photo Contest in Vietnam in 2021 (VN21).

As an important event of the Vietnam Association of Photographic Artists held every 2 years, VN21 attracts 1,518 authors from 45 countries and territories to participate with 16,924 submitted works.

Up to 90% of the photos are taken by photographer Nguyen Huu Thong in the northern highlands and most of the photography awards he won are also in this category. Among them is the picture “Harvesting bamboo” taken in 2020 in Lung Pan, Bao Lac, Cao Bang, which was exhibited at the Vietnam Art Photo Contest 2020.

Thong’s composition trips are only 2-3 days long and often combine on weekends and only a few trips a year. He determined that his work was serious, shooting “to the right place”, but the success of a composition trip also depends on external factors.

During a snow photography trip at Y Ty, Lao Cai in early 2021, he and his friends came up from Hanoi, but when they arrived, they saw only ice, each wind whistling so cold that they wore all their clothes, but it was still cold at night. run. Two days later the weather was still the same, drizzly, windy, no snow, accompanied by a bit of disappointment. But the group still waited patiently until the next morning, when snowflakes began to fall to cover Nhiu Co San village. The picture above is called “White snow on the way back”.

The photo “Up to the fields” was taken in Quan Ba, Ha Giang during a time when taking his daughter to enjoy the mountainous spring weather in 2021. He also wanted to give his daughter the first glimpses of a hard and hard life. of the people here. It is a scene of a family working in the middle of the afternoon, a two-month-old baby lying in a towel tied to four tree branches on the ground, the family’s meal is a pot of cold rice with some sauerkraut, a The photo leaves a lot of emotions about highland life.

Every year, people in Dong Van stone plateau lack water from October to March next year, each family has 1-2 people in charge of collecting water, most of which are women and children. Every day, they spend 2-4 hours just collecting water, and this greatly affects the children’s class time. This is also the context of the creation of the work “Season of Thirst Stone” taken by Mr. Thong in early 2021.

The work “Delicious food on the market day” was taken in October 2016 at the Can Cau fair, Si Ma Cai, Lao Cai.

When coming to a new land, visitors should not ignore the museum and market, because that is the place to preserve the history and culture of the land. Every time he goes to the highlands, he also spends time going to the market because it is not simply a place to buy and sell, but also a place for cultural exchange between ethnic communities.

Recalling the Can Cau market, Mr. Thong recalls the pho shop here with a delicious bowl of black chicken noodle soup in the chilly morning, pink and purple pho cake made from upland rice, served with chili peppers with chicken fat and pickled vegetables. sour, herbs and add main noodles.

In addition to highland photos, Mr. Thong is especially passionate about taking pictures of Bac Giang, the hometown where he was born. In the photo is the picture “End of the season” – a smiling image of a woman harvesting straw on a sunny autumn afternoon in 2020 in Tan Yen. The countryside has applied agricultural mechanization, so such simple and dear images are no longer encountered.

“To have a beautiful, soulful photo, you need passion, a lot of experience, and a capital to live, observe with your eyes, feel with your heart, and record with a camera,” he said.


“Love photography without borders” is one of the thoughts that Mr. Thong is aiming for. Thanks to photography, he has the opportunity to exchange the culture and regional knowledge of his country with other countries.

For example, the work “Colors of Inle Lake” taken in Myanmar in October 2019 has just won a bronze medal in the Tourism section of the VN21 contest. Thanks to the photography exchange on social networks, Thong met a Myanmar friend. Later, the friend became a guide, driving him to visit and take photos everywhere in Myanmar, including Inle Lake, Shan State.

“In addition to photographing fishermen rowing with one leg, I also took pictures of the weaving area on the lake, the large colorful clothes reflected on the lake surface are impressive, when looking a little away, we have It feels like 3D cubes appear in the image”. Follow vnexpress

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