Interview with Viet Ha Tran: Photographing Dreamscape

Viet Ha Tran, a Madrid-based fine art photographer and multidisciplinary artist, creates emotionally dense and endlessly compelling photographs of women and landscapes. Her photographs, which bring an air of classic paintings and they are filled with oriental spirituality and romanticism, have the power to push viewers into a daydream where reality conveys with the artist’s inner world.

What is your process like, and what media do you use?

My photographs are a mixture of photographs, painting textures and some digital techniques. I use photographs as raw materials to create artworks that are composed of more elements. I am very inspired by classic painters and love to create art photographs that resemble those paintings I admire but at the same time carry an ethereal atmosphere which take our imagination far beyond reality. I use my camera to create raw materials and from there, I start my creative editing process. I use Photoshop and Lightroom.

Emotions have an essential part in my photographic work and through the eye of my camera, I try to draw pictures of my own inner dreams, feelings and intimacy, or reflect these emotions onto my photographs of landscapes and nature. I have created the best works during my career during the most intense emotional moments.

Although I can spend months planning the photoshoots, from recruiting the fashion team (from models, make-up artists, stylists, hair stylists, fashion designers etc) to choosing the location for the big day, I enjoy working with post-processing the most. The photographs I take are only the raw materials which need much work which I could spend up to 20 hours creating a photographic artwork.

How did you get to this process?

When I first started taking pictures, I wanted to create the scenes from the classic novels I used to read. I have a keen interest in English and French classic literature from the XIX century since when I was still at high school. Later on, I started working with professional creative directors to create more complex stories such as “Xian: Myths of the Beauties” which depicts four ancient beauties of China who used their beauty and charm to change destinies of empires. Also, my creative process has become much more detail-oriented and conceptual than in the first five years.

What do you think of as the most important themes in your work?

Women portraits have been a major theme in my work for many years. On one hand, I love creating portraits that emphasise emotions, especially women emotions, I think that an important mission of an artwork is to stir different levels of emotions in the audience. On the other hand, I love creating portraits of Vietnamese women in the traditional costumes and surroundings. I have been away from my home country for almost two decades and I miss the culture. Therefore I want to create works that pay homage to the Vietnamese culture.

In addition, in recent years I have been concerned about climate change and sustainability and now nature, landscapes are a strong focus in my daily work. I want to immortalise the beauty of our planet for future generations. Such series as "Ecosystem" (2015) and "Wall of Nature" (2019-ongoing) are examples of this theme.

Most of the time, your subjects are shown in ethereal, semi-abstract spaces. Do you think of them as being in the same world?

I would like to think that they come from and live in my world of imagination. I like creating artworks that take the audience to another world.

How do you go about finding subjects and locations for shooting?

The concepts behind my photographs can come to me very naturally while reading a poem, listening to music or visiting my favourite museums such as Prado Museum, Thyssen Museum and Romanticism Museum in Madrid.

I choose locations of shootings carefully since they plan an important role in my final artistic outcome. I usually do my research on what kind of architecture or surroundings I would like to shoot, then google them, and go visit them before planning the shooting.

Additionally, post-processing offers unlimited ways of retouching the same picture and allows me to explore with my imagination, it’s the process I enjoy the most.

What does a normal day in the studio look like for you?

I have an art studio where I have my art prints, framed photographs, paintings and materials but I work mostly with my computer in my home office. I like creating new artworks in the morning when my mind is fresh and when the sunlight enters my office window. It's a wonderful feeling to enjoy a morning coffee, warm sunlight and start creating, my creative just flows naturally! In the afternoon I deal with emails, social media and administrative tasks such as uploading works to online galleries and several afternoons a week I go to my art studio to prepare packages of art prints for collectors.

What/who influences you?

Painters and paintings. I love Old Masters such as Rubens and Rembrandt, the light in their paintings is sublime. Also the colours used by Pre-Raphaelite painters. Landscape paintings from the Romanticism period also inspire me, the tranquility in those paintings is such an inspiration for my landscape and nature photographs.

Music, such as New Age music also has an influence on my world since I usually listen to it while creating art.  

Are there any other Rise Art artists whose work you are enjoying at the moment?

I like the works of Lilia Orlova-Holmes and Gina Soden. Their works stir strong emotions inside me anytime I look at them.

Are you currently working on any exciting new projects?

I am working on a new series "Spanish landscapes". I am immensely fascinated by the beauty of the Spanish countryside and want to create a collection of these photographs I have taken during the past years.

On the other hand, I want to incorporate Vietnamese traditional art techniques such as lacquer painting into my Vietnamese women photographs. I want to show the beauty of Vietnamese women in a new light, like no other Vietnamese artist has ever done before. Such work as “The Golden Lotus Lake” (recently listed on Rise Art) is an example of what I want to create in the short term.