Binh Danh: Memory, War and Chlorophyll Prints

Holding, Chlorophyll print and resin, 13 x 21 inch, 2005. © Binh Danh

Fascinating work by Vietnamese American Binh Danh using “chlorophyll printing process”, a technique he invented in which photographic images appear embedded in leaves through the action of photosynthesis. His work investigates his Vietnamese heritage and collective memory of war, both in Viet Nam and Cambodia.

“As part of the the victims’ testimony, photographs were made of them. Today, what is left of the memories of these people are rooms and rooms of those portraits. The portraits are witnesses to history and they speak to us, holding us accountable. To honor these lives, I made altars of the dead—a place where we can meditate on history, the present moment, and our own mortality.” Bin Danh on his work on the victims of the Khmer Rouge.

More from Binh Danh: http://binhdanh.com/