Maika Elan is a Vietnamese photographer centering in the
city of Hanoi. She only considered pursuing photography as a career after years
of honing her skills on more personal projects. With her sharp, focused images
of scenes that use subtle shadow to enhance vibrant colors it did not take long
for her talent to be noticed. Elan seems to combine the use fast shutter speeds
with medium to wide aperture settings. She only takes pictures of scenes that
are within a few feet but on occasion, she will take the shot of the subject
yards away. The space that Elan chooses
to capture within the frame is an intimate one, precious moments frozen in
time. This technique puts emphasis on her subjects, making the viewer focus on
them rather than the setting around them.
Maika Elan shows
her concern for the acceptance of same-sex relationships within communist
Vietnam in her collection titled The Pink
Choice. She shoots couples indiscriminately both male couples and female,
young and old. She hoped to capture the
details and subtle nuances within each relationship that made that couple in
particular unique to the others. A teenage boy painting his lover’s toenails, a
girl and her partner staring up her skirt in wonderment and two men sharing a
meal in front of brightly colored gowns and dresses that they most likely made
themselves. Most likely everyday activities for these couples however may
appear shocking to some of the more conservative individuals in Vietnam.
But
this is why I like this collection. It challenges everything that we who only
see Vietnam as rigid when it came to the acceptance of any person outside of
the heteronorm. Now that I see that over
fifty same-sex couples captured on film and presented to the world, I have a
more firm belief that this country is making strides for acceptance of all
people. I also chose this collection because I am passionate about treating
homosexual men and women as well as gender queer individuals with respect and
want their stories to be heard. Stories about just having fun with their
partners, just man scrubbing his boyfriends back in the tub, as Maika Elan
shows them
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