Chiron Duong was born in 1996 in Vietnam. He graduated in landscape architecture in Vietnam and is now working as an architect and fashion photographer. The inspiration for his fashion works comes from the traditional cultures of his own country, but also other Asian countries, which he discovered and learned through his numerous meetings and personal research. Asian tones are not only extremely flamboyant and floating but also generous, ruminant, and meaningful.

Duong strives to transmit the feelings of mystery about folklore, faith, and religion in the lives of Asians through colors and spiritual, fashionable photos as well as the intersection of Western and Eastern culture, especially Vietnamese culture. Duong applies many techniques in his photography to create emotion in his works instead of trying to create a visual impression. He is inspired by mysterious even phantasmagorical styles, his color mix clothes, nature, and flowers, thanks to his skillful use of blur and its creation of lights, his works becomes almost supernatural.

Chiron Duong received many awards and prizes, including the first place Picto Prize for Fashion Photography 2020, France,  winner of the 37th Hyeres Festival 2022, France, and most recently PhotoVogue Festival 2022, Italy. His work has been successfully exhibited in France.

Chiron Duong is a photographer who, unlike many, has been able to successfully capture what it is to dream, and how those dreams permeate into and reflect out reality.

A relatively new name in the world of photography, Chiron Duong is the recipient of the 2020 Picto Prize for Fashion Photography. The recipient of the prize, provided by our partner for printing and framing, was determined by a jury containing some of the most important names in photography. Among the jury was Sarah Moon, renowned photographer and the jury’s president, as well as fashion photographer Paolo Roversi, Benjamin Lindbergh of Studio Lindbergh, and Sylvie Lécallier, the head of the photographic collection of the Palais Galliera Guillaume. The prize is extremely competitive and prestigious; its recipient not only receives a Leica Q2 camera, an exhibition of their work, and a JCDecaux poster campaign in Paris, but they also receive international acclaim and recognition. After receiving the prize, Chiron Duong has since continued to create inspiring works which form– according to a mantra of his, “Chân không diệu hữu,”– “from nothing to create a magical existence” (Chiron Duong).

Through his distinctive style, usage of color, and the dreamlike quality of his work, Chrion Duong transports us to a world which in its conception both hinges upon Vietnamese tradition and Eastern culture, such as the deep grace and emotion of Ao Dai Vietnamese clothing, as well the way that Eastern and Western cultures interact and communicate. From this endeavour springs thought provoking dream works which underscore universal emotions and the human capacity to survive amidst harsh realities.

Ranging from a look at the “fairy” like world of a pearl (Pearl series) to the romantic and soaring sunset of Asian cultures and artistic traditions (Sunrise), each of Duong’s works center upon a world blurred between dreaming and being awake; they are high and romantic while also being deeply rooted in our reality.

 By blurring his images, Duong allows them to become real, a psychoanalytical endeavour which underscores the importance of dreams, especially in childhood. His works both emphasize the creativity of childhood dreams while contrasting them to the “emptiness” of a dreamless adult world. His works beg the question: how are our dreams in childhood reflected in our adult realities?

Chiron Duong’s photographs are a stunning, dreamlike vision into both the artist’s work– “chapters” in his novel, as he calls them– as well as into the resilience and universality of humanity.