{"id":1773406,"date":"2026-02-16T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1773406"},"modified":"2026-02-16T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T06:00:00","slug":"ocean-vuong-photographs-the-people-and-places-that-shaped-his-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1773406","title":{"rendered":"Ocean Vuong photographs the people and places that shaped his writing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1200\/0-0-3000-2000\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437268.jpeg&#8221;]<\/p>\n<article class=\"main-article longread\">\n<div class=\"article-main-content article-wrapper has-media-but-its-an-image\" data-status=\"loaded\" data-primary-article=\"true\" data-url=\"\/art-photography\/article\/69633\/1\/ocean-vuong-song-photography-exhibition-nyc-nan-goldin-briefly-gorgeous\" data-article-id=\"69633\">\n<header class=\"article-header has-landscape-image no-media\">\n<div class=\"wrapper dg-max-width\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<figure class=\"main-img has-figcaption\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.33\" data-template=\"Longread Article\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ocean Vuong, S\u1ed1ng \" class=\"img\" height=\"2250\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1400\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437268.jpeg\" width=\"3000\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"inner\"><span class=\"credit\">\u00a9 Ocean Vuong<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"meta\">\n<div class=\"inner\"><time datetime=\"2026-02-16T09:00:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"16 February 2026\"><span class=\"month\">DateInMeta<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"16\">16,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div class=\"titles\">\n<div class=\"tags\">\n<div class=\"sections\"><a class=\"category vertical vertical - art-photography\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\">Art &amp; Photography<\/a><br \/>\n\/<br \/>\n<a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/longread\">Longread<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h1 class=\"title\"><span>Ocean Vuong photographs the people and places that shaped <span class=\"nowrap\">his writing<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n<div class=\"standfirst\">\n<h2>\u2018In-between-ness is actually what the camera can do better than the sentence\u2019: Ocean Vuong\u2019s debut exhibition, S\u1ed1ng, reveals how photography informed his writing and his <span class=\"nowrap\">closest relationships<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-02-16T09:00:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"16 February 2026\"><span class=\"month\">February<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"16\">16,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tags\">\n<div class=\"sections\"><a class=\"category vertical - art-photography\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\">Art &amp; Photography<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/longread\">Longread<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-02-16T09:00:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"16 February 2026\"><span class=\"month\">February<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"16\">16,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/p>\n<div class=\"providers\">\n<div class=\"contributors\"><span class=\"contributor\" data-contributor-role=\"Text\"><span class=\"contributor-role\">Text<\/span><a class=\"contributor-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/user\/AylaAngelos\">Ayla Angelos<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article-body-container\">\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"dazed-gallery has-11-images \">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<header>\n<div class=\"info\"><span class=\"heading\">Ocean Vuong, S\u1ed1ng<\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"gallery\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumbs\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36679\/0\/ocean-vuong-s-ng\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ocean Vuong, S\u1ed1ng \" class=\"img\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-0-2000-1333\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437260.jpeg\" width=\"2000\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36679\/1\/ocean-vuong-s-ng\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ocean Vuong, S\u1ed1ng \" class=\"img\" height=\"2000\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-0-3000-2000\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437262.jpeg\" width=\"3000\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36679\/2\/ocean-vuong-s-ng\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ocean Vuong, S\u1ed1ng \" class=\"img\" height=\"2000\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-0-3000-2000\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437263.jpeg\" width=\"3000\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36679\/3\/ocean-vuong-s-ng\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ocean Vuong, S\u1ed1ng \" class=\"img\" height=\"1500\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-1313-2250-1500\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437264.jpeg\" width=\"2250\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36679\/4\/ocean-vuong-s-ng\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ocean Vuong, S\u1ed1ng \" class=\"img\" height=\"1500\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-0-2250-1500\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437265.jpeg\" width=\"2250\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36679\/5\/ocean-vuong-s-ng\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ocean Vuong, S\u1ed1ng \" class=\"img\" height=\"1500\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-225-2250-1500\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437266.jpeg\" width=\"2250\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-footer\">Gallery \/ 11 images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Ocean Vuong is known for his words. Across poetry collections <\/span><em><span>Night Sky with Exit Wounds<\/span><\/em><span> and <\/span><em><span>Time Is a Mother,<\/span><\/em><span> and novels <\/span><em><span>On Earth We\u2019re Briefly Gorgeous<\/span><\/em><span> and <\/span><em><span>The Emperor of Gladness<\/span><\/em><span>, he has become one of the most acclaimed literary voices of his generation. What\u2019s less known is that, for as long as he\u2019s been writing, Vuong has been making photographs. <em>S\u1ed1ng<\/em> \u2013 a new exhibition at CPW, its title meaning \u201cto live\u201d in Vietnamese and sounding, in English, like \u201csong\u201d \u2013 marks the first time this visual archive steps fully into public view, revealing how photography has been feeding his writing from the very beginning.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>As a teenager growing up in Hartford, Connecticut, Vuong was the friend behind the camera at punk shows and with skate crews, filming tricks for sponsorship tapes which they\u2019d send to local skate shops. Photography didn\u2019t yet register as \u201cart\u201d. That shift came later, when he discovered the photography shelves at his community college \u2013 \u201cthe size of two microwaves\u201d \u2013 and encountered <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/nan-goldin\">Nan Goldin<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/daido-moriyama\">Daido Moriyama<\/a>, Sally Mann, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/alec-soth\">Alec Soth<\/a> and Judith Joy Ross. From there, the motive shifted away from stages and kickflips, towards his own family.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The pivot was both brutal and tender. At 18 or 19, he sprinted into his mother\u2019s nail salon clutching a local journal. \u201cI said, \u2018Ma, I did it. Here it is, you know, here\u2019s my name in print. It\u2019s not a government document. It\u2019s not a bill. It\u2019s not a detention slip, you know, it\u2019s a poem.\u2019\u201d She looked at the page and her face fell. \u201cShe said, \u2018This is great, son. I wish I could read it.\u2019 In the thrill of seeing his words in print, he had forgotten what success would mean inside an illiterate household. \u201cI realised I can\u2019t get published and run to my mum, like most children,\u201d he says. \u201cThe more I succeed as a writer, the further away from her comprehension I would be.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"0771b684-5960-49c4-a0b6-b3ef0115147c\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/2000\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437270.jpeg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"0.67\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ocean Vuong, S\u1ed1ng \" class=\"img\" height=\"3000\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1600\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437270.jpeg\" width=\"2008\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">Phuong and <span class=\"nowrap\">Mom (2009)<\/span><\/span><span class=\"credit\">\u00a9 Ocean Vuong<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>So he picked up a borrowed Nikon and began photographing the park his mother never had time to walk in, the derelict buildings near their home, the textures of a working-class Vietnamese American life shaped by 12-hour shifts at the salon. The camera became a way of making his life legible to her. And when he handed his mother a stack of prints, she flipped through them carefully. \u201c\u2018Wow\u2019, she said, \u2018I didn\u2019t know our life was so sad.\u2019\u201d Vuong had found the images of broken mills, empty lots and rundown gas stations beautiful \u2013 but his mother\u2019s response cut deeper. \u201cShe was correct. She became my first critic and found a theme I\u2019m still digging into \u2013 that sadness is not so much of a feeling, but a system of historic knowledge; reasons and histories that bring about economic and industrial decline and blighted communities.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Crucially, that practice began to infiltrate the writing. \u201cTaking a strong photograph in the photographic tradition helped me be in tune with the subject in deeply dynamic ways. And so when I started to describe these scenes in my fiction, in my poems, they were deeply embodied.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>If Vuong\u2019s books move with the broken, looping logic of memory, <em>S\u1ed1ng<\/em> renders that same motion through sequence and framing. Spanning photographs made between 2009 and 2025, the exhibition and limited-edition book gather fragmented family portraits, landscapes of the Connecticut River Valley, interiors peppered with objects from generations of Vietnamese diasporic life, Buddhist mourning rituals, and an intimate study of his younger brother as they grieve and rebuild after their mother\u2019s death. It\u2019s structured around an oscillation between wide and tight frames of landscapes, tenement facades, porches, fences and rivers \u2013 and then suddenly a hand, a face and the frayed edge of an archival print.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>\u201cI\u2019ve always been interested in capturing that ricochet, that whiplash between movement and absolute stillness and everything in between. The in-between-ness is actually what the camera can do better than the sentence\u201d \u2013 Ocean Vuong<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span>\u201cWriting is about acceleration and deceleration,\u201d he says. \u201cDescription is deceleration, exposition is acceleration. This oscillation between zooming in and zooming out is something I\u2019ve done all the time.\u201d The photographs follow the same rhythm. \u201cI\u2019ve always been interested in capturing that ricochet, that whiplash between movement and absolute stillness and everything in between. The in-between-ness is actually what the camera can do better than the sentence.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>That distinction between word and image is at the heart of <em>S\u1ed1ng.<\/em> For Vuong, the sentence is almost oppressive in its construction: \u201cThe sentence is full of order. It is a linear technology and is controlled and paced by punctuation. So there\u2019s a lot of traffic control, and there\u2019s a lot of contrivance.\u201d Even if the first draft is \u201cquite cooked\u201d, every clause becomes a decision. \u201cYou cannot write a good sentence by accident,\u201d he adds, citing the thoughts of<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/susan-sontag\">Susan Sontag<\/a>. The camera, by contrast, lives in excess and, a lot of the time, plain luck. \u201cThe camera has a larger consciousness than the photographer, so it accepts everything, and then some things you don\u2019t even notice or see.\u201d Sometimes he\u2019s so overtaken by what\u2019s happening that he hits the shutter \u201cfrom the hip by accident\u201d. Those somatic, half-willed frames often stun him later. \u201cIt\u2019s an accident, but it\u2019s not insignificant,\u201d he says. \u201cSometimes those frames are the ones that take my breath away the most.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>He describes photography as \u201cpunching holes out of time\u201d \u2013 not to damage the world, but to make more of it. In relation to his family, especially his younger brother, that \u201cmore\u201d is urgent: \u201cThe camera does an instant mode of replication,\u201d he says, \u201cwhich means I get to make more of these people who are very singular.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"c4bc3091-cafa-467d-a82d-b3ef0114ed7f\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/2000\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437260.jpeg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"0.67\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ocean Vuong, S\u1ed1ng \" class=\"img\" height=\"3000\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1600\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437260.jpeg\" width=\"2000\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">Mom and <span class=\"nowrap\">Nicky (2021)<\/span><\/span><span class=\"credit\">\u00a9 Ocean Vuong<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span><em>S\u1ed1ng<\/em> crystallises this through an edit made in collaboration with photographer Raymond Meeks. Vuong handed over what he thought was the project, and Meeks kept asking for \u201cmore of the archive\u201d until they were wading through nearly a thousand images. He pulled out frames Vuong had dismissed as \u201cbad\u201d or \u201cthrowaway\u201d and placed them in new constellations. One diptych in the book shows, on the left, an old family snapshot of Vuong and his brother on the porch of their Hartford tenement, re-photographed on linen \u2013 the original print is torn straight through the centre. On the facing page, Meeks paired a recent image Vuong had made of a fence near a skate park, prised open where kids cut through. \u201cI thought it was a throwaway image\u2026 just a hole in a fence,\u201d Vuong admits. But together, the rip and the gap become almost unbearably precise. \u201cIt looks exactly the same, like the same angle, the same opening. And then the poetry, the metaphor of the fence being an entrance into another world, the photograph being\u2026 Oh my God, I just gasped. I couldn\u2019t believe it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"5f9f47ae-a1d2-40a1-840c-b3ef01151107\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/2000\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437269.jpeg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.5\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ocean Vuong, S\u1ed1ng \" class=\"img\" height=\"2000\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1600\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437269.jpeg\" width=\"3000\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">Thuy\u2019s altar (2020)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">\u00a9 Ocean Vuong<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>The book itself exists separately from the show, as he didn\u2019t want a \u201cportable exhibition\u201d, but two related objects with their own lives. The displayed works include both colour and black-and-white works, while the book leans decisively into monochrome, in line with where his practice is heading. \u201cNowadays, I take almost all monochrome. It\u2019s kind of where my sensibilities as a photographer [are] going,\u201d he says. \u201cI think I write in colour, but I shoot in black and white. Why? I don\u2019t really know yet. I\u2019m still figuring that out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>There is a profound intimacy within the works, from the family albums re-photographed on linen, to the rooms of his childhood and his brother\u2019s face captured over the years. Yet despite this, Vuong refuses to dictate how <em>S\u1ed1ng<\/em> should be received. \u201cYou make a work, and then it\u2019s like you\u2019re building a raft and sending it downriver. Well, you can\u2019t be on that raft. You have to stay on the banks and the shore.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><em>S\u1ed1ng<\/em> arrives, then, as both an archive and raft. It\u2019s a record of a family surviving war\u2019s long aftermath, and a vessel sent out into the world with no guarantees. It extends Vuong\u2019s lifelong project \u2013 how to live with grief, how to see the working\u2011class immigrant worlds that raised him, how to turn what\u2019s been deemed disposable into something enduring into a new medium that was there all along, teaching his sentences how to see.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cpw.org\/exhibition\/song\/\">S\u1ed1ng<\/a><em>by Ocean Vuong is running at CPW in New York until 10 May 2026.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-series header article-series tags\"><span class=\"heading\">More on these topics:<\/span><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\">Art &amp; Photography<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/longread\">Longread<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/vietnam\">Vietnam<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/susan-sontag\">Susan Sontag<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"image-navigation\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/news\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img one\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">News<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/fashion\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img two\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Fashion<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img three\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Music<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img four\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Film &amp; TV<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/article\/69633\/1\/ocean-vuong-song-photography-exhibition-nyc-nan-goldin-briefly-gorgeous#features\" class=\"image-navigation__img five\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Features<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/beauty\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img six\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Beauty<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img seven\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Life &amp; Culture<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img eight\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Art &amp; Photography<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"dazed-gallery has-11-images \">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<header>\n<div class=\"info\"><span class=\"heading\">Ocean Vuong, S\u1ed1ng<\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"gallery\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumbs\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36679\/0\/ocean-vuong-s-ng\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ocean Vuong, S\u1ed1ng \" class=\"img\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-0-2000-1333\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437260.jpeg\" width=\"2000\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36679\/1\/ocean-vuong-s-ng\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ocean Vuong, S\u1ed1ng \" class=\"img\" height=\"2000\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-0-3000-2000\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437262.jpeg\" width=\"3000\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36679\/2\/ocean-vuong-s-ng\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ocean Vuong, S\u1ed1ng \" class=\"img\" height=\"2000\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-0-3000-2000\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437263.jpeg\" width=\"3000\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36679\/3\/ocean-vuong-s-ng\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ocean Vuong, S\u1ed1ng \" class=\"img\" height=\"1500\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-1313-2250-1500\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437264.jpeg\" width=\"2250\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36679\/4\/ocean-vuong-s-ng\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ocean Vuong, S\u1ed1ng \" class=\"img\" height=\"1500\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-0-2250-1500\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437265.jpeg\" width=\"2250\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/gallery\/36679\/5\/ocean-vuong-s-ng\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ocean Vuong, S\u1ed1ng \" class=\"img\" height=\"1500\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-225-2250-1500\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437266.jpeg\" width=\"2250\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-footer\">Gallery \/ 11 images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Ocean Vuong is known for his words. Across poetry collections <\/span><em><span>Night Sky with Exit Wounds<\/span><\/em><span> and <\/span><em><span>Time Is a Mother,<\/span><\/em><span> and novels <\/span><em><span>On Earth We\u2019re Briefly Gorgeous<\/span><\/em><span> and <\/span><em><span>The Emperor of Gladness<\/span><\/em><span>, he has become one of the most acclaimed literary voices of his generation. What\u2019s less known is that, for as long as he\u2019s been writing, Vuong has been making photographs. <em>S\u1ed1ng<\/em> \u2013 a new exhibition at CPW, its title meaning \u201cto live\u201d in Vietnamese and sounding, in English, like \u201csong\u201d \u2013 marks the first time this visual archive steps fully into public view, revealing how photography has been feeding his writing from the very beginning.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>As a teenager growing up in Hartford, Connecticut, Vuong was the friend behind the camera at punk shows and with skate crews, filming tricks for sponsorship tapes which they\u2019d send to local skate shops. Photography didn\u2019t yet register as \u201cart\u201d. That shift came later, when he discovered the photography shelves at his community college \u2013 \u201cthe size of two microwaves\u201d \u2013 and encountered <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/nan-goldin\">Nan Goldin<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/daido-moriyama\">Daido Moriyama<\/a>, Sally Mann, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/alec-soth\">Alec Soth<\/a> and Judith Joy Ross. From there, the motive shifted away from stages and kickflips, towards his own family.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The pivot was both brutal and tender. At 18 or 19, he sprinted into his mother\u2019s nail salon clutching a local journal. \u201cI said, \u2018Ma, I did it. Here it is, you know, here\u2019s my name in print. It\u2019s not a government document. It\u2019s not a bill. It\u2019s not a detention slip, you know, it\u2019s a poem.\u2019\u201d She looked at the page and her face fell. \u201cShe said, \u2018This is great, son. I wish I could read it.\u2019 In the thrill of seeing his words in print, he had forgotten what success would mean inside an illiterate household. \u201cI realised I can\u2019t get published and run to my mum, like most children,\u201d he says. \u201cThe more I succeed as a writer, the further away from her comprehension I would be.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"0771b684-5960-49c4-a0b6-b3ef0115147c\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/2000\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437270.jpeg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"0.67\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ocean Vuong, S\u1ed1ng \" class=\"img\" height=\"3000\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1600\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437270.jpeg\" width=\"2008\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">Phuong and <span class=\"nowrap\">Mom (2009)<\/span><\/span><span class=\"credit\">\u00a9 Ocean Vuong<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>So he picked up a borrowed Nikon and began photographing the park his mother never had time to walk in, the derelict buildings near their home, the textures of a working-class Vietnamese American life shaped by 12-hour shifts at the salon. The camera became a way of making his life legible to her. And when he handed his mother a stack of prints, she flipped through them carefully. \u201c\u2018Wow\u2019, she said, \u2018I didn\u2019t know our life was so sad.\u2019\u201d Vuong had found the images of broken mills, empty lots and rundown gas stations beautiful \u2013 but his mother\u2019s response cut deeper. \u201cShe was correct. She became my first critic and found a theme I\u2019m still digging into \u2013 that sadness is not so much of a feeling, but a system of historic knowledge; reasons and histories that bring about economic and industrial decline and blighted communities.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Crucially, that practice began to infiltrate the writing. \u201cTaking a strong photograph in the photographic tradition helped me be in tune with the subject in deeply dynamic ways. And so when I started to describe these scenes in my fiction, in my poems, they were deeply embodied.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>If Vuong\u2019s books move with the broken, looping logic of memory, <em>S\u1ed1ng<\/em> renders that same motion through sequence and framing. Spanning photographs made between 2009 and 2025, the exhibition and limited-edition book gather fragmented family portraits, landscapes of the Connecticut River Valley, interiors peppered with objects from generations of Vietnamese diasporic life, Buddhist mourning rituals, and an intimate study of his younger brother as they grieve and rebuild after their mother\u2019s death. It\u2019s structured around an oscillation between wide and tight frames of landscapes, tenement facades, porches, fences and rivers \u2013 and then suddenly a hand, a face and the frayed edge of an archival print.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>\u201cI\u2019ve always been interested in capturing that ricochet, that whiplash between movement and absolute stillness and everything in between. The in-between-ness is actually what the camera can do better than the sentence\u201d \u2013 Ocean Vuong<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span>\u201cWriting is about acceleration and deceleration,\u201d he says. \u201cDescription is deceleration, exposition is acceleration. This oscillation between zooming in and zooming out is something I\u2019ve done all the time.\u201d The photographs follow the same rhythm. \u201cI\u2019ve always been interested in capturing that ricochet, that whiplash between movement and absolute stillness and everything in between. The in-between-ness is actually what the camera can do better than the sentence.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>That distinction between word and image is at the heart of <em>S\u1ed1ng.<\/em> For Vuong, the sentence is almost oppressive in its construction: \u201cThe sentence is full of order. It is a linear technology and is controlled and paced by punctuation. So there\u2019s a lot of traffic control, and there\u2019s a lot of contrivance.\u201d Even if the first draft is \u201cquite cooked\u201d, every clause becomes a decision. \u201cYou cannot write a good sentence by accident,\u201d he adds, citing the thoughts of<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/susan-sontag\">Susan Sontag<\/a>. The camera, by contrast, lives in excess and, a lot of the time, plain luck. \u201cThe camera has a larger consciousness than the photographer, so it accepts everything, and then some things you don\u2019t even notice or see.\u201d Sometimes he\u2019s so overtaken by what\u2019s happening that he hits the shutter \u201cfrom the hip by accident\u201d. Those somatic, half-willed frames often stun him later. \u201cIt\u2019s an accident, but it\u2019s not insignificant,\u201d he says. \u201cSometimes those frames are the ones that take my breath away the most.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>He describes photography as \u201cpunching holes out of time\u201d \u2013 not to damage the world, but to make more of it. In relation to his family, especially his younger brother, that \u201cmore\u201d is urgent: \u201cThe camera does an instant mode of replication,\u201d he says, \u201cwhich means I get to make more of these people who are very singular.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"c4bc3091-cafa-467d-a82d-b3ef0114ed7f\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/2000\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437260.jpeg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"0.67\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ocean Vuong, S\u1ed1ng \" class=\"img\" height=\"3000\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1600\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437260.jpeg\" width=\"2000\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">Mom and <span class=\"nowrap\">Nicky (2021)<\/span><\/span><span class=\"credit\">\u00a9 Ocean Vuong<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span><em>S\u1ed1ng<\/em> crystallises this through an edit made in collaboration with photographer Raymond Meeks. Vuong handed over what he thought was the project, and Meeks kept asking for \u201cmore of the archive\u201d until they were wading through nearly a thousand images. He pulled out frames Vuong had dismissed as \u201cbad\u201d or \u201cthrowaway\u201d and placed them in new constellations. One diptych in the book shows, on the left, an old family snapshot of Vuong and his brother on the porch of their Hartford tenement, re-photographed on linen \u2013 the original print is torn straight through the centre. On the facing page, Meeks paired a recent image Vuong had made of a fence near a skate park, prised open where kids cut through. \u201cI thought it was a throwaway image\u2026 just a hole in a fence,\u201d Vuong admits. But together, the rip and the gap become almost unbearably precise. \u201cIt looks exactly the same, like the same angle, the same opening. And then the poetry, the metaphor of the fence being an entrance into another world, the photograph being\u2026 Oh my God, I just gasped. I couldn\u2019t believe it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"5f9f47ae-a1d2-40a1-840c-b3ef01151107\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/2000\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437269.jpeg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.5\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ocean Vuong, S\u1ed1ng \" class=\"img\" height=\"2000\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1600\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437269.jpeg\" width=\"3000\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">Thuy\u2019s altar (2020)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">\u00a9 Ocean Vuong<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>The book itself exists separately from the show, as he didn\u2019t want a \u201cportable exhibition\u201d, but two related objects with their own lives. The displayed works include both colour and black-and-white works, while the book leans decisively into monochrome, in line with where his practice is heading. \u201cNowadays, I take almost all monochrome. It\u2019s kind of where my sensibilities as a photographer [are] going,\u201d he says. \u201cI think I write in colour, but I shoot in black and white. Why? I don\u2019t really know yet. I\u2019m still figuring that out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>There is a profound intimacy within the works, from the family albums re-photographed on linen, to the rooms of his childhood and his brother\u2019s face captured over the years. Yet despite this, Vuong refuses to dictate how <em>S\u1ed1ng<\/em> should be received. \u201cYou make a work, and then it\u2019s like you\u2019re building a raft and sending it downriver. Well, you can\u2019t be on that raft. You have to stay on the banks and the shore.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><em>S\u1ed1ng<\/em> arrives, then, as both an archive and raft. It\u2019s a record of a family surviving war\u2019s long aftermath, and a vessel sent out into the world with no guarantees. It extends Vuong\u2019s lifelong project \u2013 how to live with grief, how to see the working\u2011class immigrant worlds that raised him, how to turn what\u2019s been deemed disposable into something enduring into a new medium that was there all along, teaching his sentences how to see.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cpw.org\/exhibition\/song\/\">S\u1ed1ng<\/a><em>by Ocean Vuong is running at CPW in New York until 10 May 2026.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-series header article-series tags\"><span class=\"heading\">More on these topics:<\/span><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\">Art &amp; Photography<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/longread\">Longread<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/vietnam\">Vietnam<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/susan-sontag\">Susan Sontag<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/article\/69633\/1\/ocean-vuong-song-photography-exhibition-nyc-nan-goldin-briefly-gorgeous&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1200\/0-0-3000-2000\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/7\/1437268.jpeg&#8221;] \u00a9 Ocean Vuong DateInMeta\u00a0 16,\u00a0 2026 Art &amp; Photography \/ Longread Ocean Vuong photographs the people and places that shaped his writing \u2018In-between-ness is actually what the camera can do better than the sentence\u2019: Ocean Vuong\u2019s debut exhibition, S\u1ed1ng, reveals how photography informed his writing and his closest relationships February\u00a0 16,\u00a0 2026 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,76],"class_list":["post-1773406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-dazeddigital-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1773406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1773406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1773406\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1773406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1773406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1773406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}