Landscape Series #1

As the journey starts, the vast empty landscape makes one wonder what one is looking for. A mysterious object? A crime scene? Something terrifying? The scenes grow more and more specific, but they do not lead to any concrete solution—only an injury in place of a metaphor.

I am interested in the idea of landscapes as quiet witnesses to history. During my online search for such photos, I came upon hundreds of images in which anonymous persons were portrayed in landscapes—and always in the same position, pointing to indicate a past event, the location of something gone, something lost or missing. We are left knowing nothing about the people, their specific thoughts or feelings, only with their repetitious sameness—always indicating, pointing to ‘evidence’ of something—never good. Together these anonymous witnesses, portrayed in compelling uniformity by innumerable Vietnamese press photographers, seem to be indicating a direction, a way forward out of the past, a fictional journey. —Nguyễn Trinh Thi