HCMC – Portraits

16 – 24 Mar, 09 am – 09 pm daily
PI-CHANNEL shop, upstairs
31B Le Thanh Ton
District 1, HCM City

Photography is the next medium to be featured in albb Open Studio with an experimental portrait studio by Saigon-based artist Freek Drent in collaboration with Vincent Westgeest.

For the past year or so, Freek Drent and Vincent Westgeest have been photographing in HCM City. Out on the streets, they often meet certain types of people, certain “characters” whom they find interesting. For albb Open Studio Program, they will set up the room as a portrait studio and will invite some of these characters to come and be photographed. Their project will be open and experimental, using different kinds of lighting, or backgrounds like billboards or commercials that are all over HCM City.

If you visit the open studio, you may also be invited to become a subject for one of their studio portraits.

On the walls of their temporary photo studio, Freek and Vincent will also hang a selection of portraits they have shot around HCM City. Visitors will be able to view these and the work-in-progress, as portraits are directed in a somewhat contrived studio situation that has been surrounded by the flavor of the authentic urban environment from which these characters have come.

Freek Drent graduated from the Willem de Kooning Academy in painting, drawing and design in 1990. During the final year of his studies he became a member of ExpohenK, whose works are held in major art collections such the Caldic Collection and the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands.

Freek, who is also known as Fred, became attracted to photography whilst traveling in China. After finishing a residency in Beijing, he made the decision to relocate to HCM City in 2008. In HCM City he has been photographing by walking around neighborhoods in outlying districts, producing a collection of images of detailed everyday objects and street scenes.

Vincent Westgeest discovered his interest in photography while living and traveling in South America fifteen years ago. Returning to Amsterdam, he enrolled in a 4-year course at the Academy of Photography.

Vincent has explored both artistic and commercial photography, generally working in black and white film with a large format camera. Seven years ago, he started traveling again, this time in Southeast Asia. He spent five years living and working in Cambodia, and has recently relocated to HCM City.

Please visit albb’s blog for more information on the program and participating artist, or follow this project on albb’s Facebook page.

a little blah blah (albb) is an artists’ initiative that since 2005 has operated as a platform for contemporary art through a wide range of channels including projects, exhibitions & events, screenings, talks, a residency program, internships and an open-access archive of art books & catalogues. Our program has evolved in a pioneering spirit, in response to the gaps and needs of the Saigon art scene. Since 2008 we have re-focussed our program to presenting one major project each year, capacity building and the ongoing running of albb Reading Room.