For his new series Yosemite, Vietnamese-American artist Binh Danh embraces the daguerreotype as a means to closer contact with the American landscape.

Over the years, he has explored his Vietnamese origins as an American immigrant through an experimental approach to photographic processes. The series Yosemite focuses on the natural landscape of California’s Yosemite National Park, as a moment of discovery and inclusion in the American culture.

The technique Binh Danh has chosen reveals more than just experimental curiosity. The works are all daguerreotypes which the artist realized over a three year process of investigation. He modifies large format cameras for accepting big silver plates that are sensitized, exposed and developed in situ within the environment.

This long and delicate process allowed Binh Danh, who had never visited Yosemite Park before, for a photographic practice that was also a lived experience. The ethereal restitution of the natural scenarios conveys a sense of bewilderment in front of the majestic landscape, but it also has a quiet and meditative tone, which suggests a sense of peace and inclusion.

The series Yosemite is on show at Haines Gallery in San Francisco until 27 October.

Photos courtesy Binh Danh and Haines Gallery.

Haines Gallery
49 Geary Street, Fifth Floor
San Francisco CA, 94108
USA