“Alternate Existence/s” is a retrospective journey through 40 years of creating unusual realities contained in each work of photographer Tom Hricko.
Drawing on his mastery of both manual printing and digital photography, Tom Hricko's photographs are a memoir that reflects the rapid and transformative development of the art of photography over the past half-century - from the days of manual, darkroom photography to the advent and rapid development of digital cameras.
The experience journey is arranged according to the author's artistic creation time with three separate spaces on the 6th - 11th - 14th floors at 198 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, District 3. This special arrangement helps viewers easily accompany Tom Hricko to recall his years of tireless creativity.
The experience space is arranged on floors 6 - 11 - 14
40-year journey of perseverance
Tom Hricko, born in 1945, is an American fine art photographer, photography educator, and master of hand-printing. His work appears in numerous collections in the United States, including Lincoln Financial Group, Phoenix Mutual, and People's Bank. Tom Hricko taught advanced black-and-white photography and printmaking at the State University of New York at Purchase and Fairfield University. For more than 20 years, he has found his true home and second homeland in Vietnam.
Tom Hricko was born in 1945 and is known as an American fine art photographer, a photography educator, and a master of handmade photographic printing.
From a very young age, Tom Hricko began to make friends with paper, ink, all kinds of art tools and even basic photographic equipment provided by his parents, thereby nurturing his artistic soul in the arms of a family with a rich artistic tradition.
After turning from painting to pursue fine art photography, Tom Hricko traveled across the United States, Europe and many countries in search of traditional landscape photographs that romanticized and evoked the raw beauty of nature. In the process of practicing this art, he also quickly realized the magical ability of photography to establish new and separate realities, absurd but possible worlds.
The work “Feather” from the series Object/Image (1979)
Quiet contemplations
Tom Hricko's medium and large format black and white photographs are influenced by Edward Weston and Paul Caponigro. Going against the idea of "capturing the moment", Tom wanted to "stretch out time" in the process of extracting images by using multiple exposures on a subject. A photographic process was created that paralleled the creative process in painting.
This method is often seen in his works such as "Requiem". In Requiem, Tom Hricko used the number 3 to honor the passing of the emotional journey: 3 objects in 3 different positions, with 3 exposures. Through the art of superimposition, each exposure represents the moment when the future becomes the present, and then the present becomes the past. When the photo is completed, the emotional journey comes to an end.
The work "Requiem" (1982) is likened to the impermanence of all things flowing with the flow of time.
Also using the multiple exposure technique, but with Tulips, Tom Hricko brings a different concept of time. He captured a flower from two different perspectives at the same time. And when looking at Tulips, we have two perspectives in one look. Tom Hricko used photographic techniques to trick our vision into thinking there are two flowers in the same work. Tulips was born from the idea of challenging the limits that people perceive of time, also making viewers think about themselves and look at the world through a more multidimensional lens.
When we look at Tulips, we have two perspectives in one look.
In addition to multiple exposures, Tom Hricko also enjoys capturing moments of objects that react to light in a particular way, such as translucent tracing paper, reflective mirrors, clear glass vases, and flowers. The classic still life compositions in Arrangement recall his years of art school. We see soft shapes of flowers and leaves contrasted with geometric shapes, large objects contrasted with small, figures contrasted with shadows, artificial versus natural, clear versus vague.
The work Arrangement (center) recalls his years studying painting with its characteristic still life composition.
Tom Hricko also takes viewers to a parallel space where works such as "In Vitro Landscape" are shot with single exposure techniques and use colored filters to create tones that cannot exist in reality, making us skeptical about reality. This is also the series of photos that marks Tom Hricko's transition from photographing realistic natural landscapes to artificial landscapes created with still life objects.
Tom Hricko shares about the concept of reality of each work: “I hope that people will take the time to “consider” the work instead of just “looking” as they often do with popular screens today. By slowing down and looking deeply at the works of art, I hope that viewers will discover something truly original from the depths of each person’s soul.”
What's more, these ideas and techniques, which were originally handcrafted by the photographer, are still used and inspired in today's digital age.
"In Vitro Landscape" was shot with single exposure techniques and used colored filters to create tones that could not exist otherwise.
Vietnam and good relationships
Tom Hricko and Vietnam have had a strange connection since the first days he set foot here in 1967. The Petri 7s photogrammetric camera he bought in Vietnam with the purpose of filling his artistic nostalgia led him to the path of true photography. And then like that, he returned to Vietnam countless times since 1995, the affection and connection with his second home urged him to step out of the "laboratory" photography experiment to return to preserve the landscape of Vietnam with the photo series "Echo beach" and "Hue".
Vung Tau was the inspiration for Tom Hricko's Echo Beach series.
The series Echo Beach was made by Tom Hricko in Vung Tau with many experiments in changing color saturation, hue, as well as based on the fact that this beach is usually crowded but almost completely empty in his works. During the exhibition, Charlie Lam, a Vietnamese American, discovered the movements of life as a series of time. The image of a ship offshore is kept inside each still photo, urging him to express his thoughts to Tom Hricko about whether this interesting arrangement was his calculation. In response to Charlie, Tom Hricko mentioned a saying of the master of light in photography - Ralph Gibson to explain his point of view: "I am not music, I am just the radio that plays that music. So I just follow the works, I do not arrange them. I go to the places where the works urge me to go."
Tom Hricko did not intentionally arrange these things, he simply let the work guide him. And so the idea of extending time was arranged by nature and now Tom Hricko was the one to carry that arrangement into the other reality he created.
Tom Hricko had some interesting sharing with Charlie Lam, one of the favorite viewers of his Echo Beach series.
Alternate Existence/s has taken the audience beyond the usual concept of "seeing". Each work is a testament to the unique ability of photography: creating "alternative entities" that are both similar and different from familiar objects and events of the everyday world. From there, the artist creates new realities that can only be seen through the expression of photographic works. It is a miracle that shakes us because of its simple familiarity and its impermanent change.
The exhibition is currently open from 9am – 8pm on November 19 – December 10, 2022, at TOONG floors 6-11-14, 198 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City.
