“Photography is a medium of formidable contradictions. It is both ridiculously easy and almost impossibly difficult. It is easy because its technical rudiments can easily be mastered by anyone with a few simple instructions. It is difficult because while the artist working in any other medium begins with a blank surface and gradually brings his conceptions into being, the photographer is the only image maker who begins with the pictures completed. His emotions, his knowledge and his native talent are brought into focus and fixed beyond recall the moment the shutter of his camera closes.” Edward Steichen (1879-1974)
My passion for photography did not begin at an early age. I took up photography after almost a lifetime in medicine. However, once I started photography, it seemed like it had always been a part of me. They say that if we want to be good at something, we need to focus on that one thing. But when I was doing commercial photography, I did everything. I photographed food and wine, individual portraits, family portraits, indigenous people and landscapes. Every field has its own techniques and aesthetics. And I find that interesting and intriguing. Now that I no longer do commercial photography, I focus on the landscapes. I love the Beauty, the Mystery and the Romance of Nature and the Landscape.
Resume
1970. Left Viet Nam to come to the US for college.
1974. BS Biology. Scholarship from the University of Houston.
1975. Nuclear Medicine Technology. Scholarship from Baylor College of Medicine.
1976-2000. Managed Nuclear Medicine Department for Baylor College of Medicine at the Institute for Rehabilitation and Research in Houston.
2000. Changed career and took up photography.
2000-2005. Worked as commercial photographer.
2005. Moved to Napa.
2006-2012. Artist-in-residence at Domaine Chandon winery in Napa Valley.
2008. “Migrant Farm workers in Napa”. Exhibit at the University of San Francisco School of Law.
2008. “Visionary Female Bay Area Artists”. Group exhibit at the University of San Francisco School of Law.
2012. “Napa Valley: The People and the Landscape”. Exhibit at Napa Valley Museum.
2012. Taught photography class to raise money for Napa Valley Museum.
2013. Taught Photography at Napa Valley College Upper Campus.
2017. Moved to Austin, Texas.
2018. Images selected for Bicentennial publication of the book “The Once and Future Forest: California Iconic Redwoods” by Save the Redwood League in San Francisco.
2019. “Viet Nam: Ancient Culture and Natural Landscape”. Exhibit at Concordia University Austin.
2011 - 2019. Led yearly Photographic, Culinary, Art and Travel Workshops to VietNam.
2022. Return to Napa Valley.
Among others, collectors of my work include: ERIC MORHAM, President, Constellation Wines Canada; CATHERINE AND BILL HONIG, Honig Winery; CHRISTIAN MCDANIEL, Director of Creative Services, Constellation Wines; MATT ASHBY, Director of vineyard operations, Constellation Wines. WALT GMELCH, Dean of School of Education USF; CELLIN GLUCK, Director of the film “Black Rain”. REN and MARILYN HARRIS, owners of Paradigm winerey; BRET LOPEZ, owner of Scarecrow Wine. My images are also widely collected by national and international visitors to Napa Valley.
