Hoang Le Giang "paints" nature with a camera

Hoang Le Giang (5th from left) was born in 1988, graduated with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration in Sweden, works in advertising, technology, architecture and travel to "live a life of travel and discovery ". Photo: Noirfoto

Magical nature

Bardo - The Middle World is Hoang Le Giang's first solo photography exhibition, following his success as the first person to win the special prize of the Noirfoto Contest 2024 (awarded in April 2025). With 30 works of natural landscapes taken from above by drones, touching the boundary between reality and fantasy, Hoang Le Giang's exhibition opens up a special visual space about the vastness of the sky and earth, helping viewers to associate and contemplate the concept of rebirth, reflecting on the impermanence of all things for art lovers.

These are frames of immense silence, beautiful ecological transition zones (ecotones) seen from above, where each branch of the water is like the blood vessels of the heart carrying thousands of sources of blessed life spreading. Many works have layers of brilliant and unreal colors, reflecting the unique biodiversity of steam, flows, springs, salt lakes, mountains, valleys, grasslands, eternal snow and ice...

Above all, Hoang Le Giang's landscape photography style for those who love nature and are passionate about discovery shows a magically changing wild environment on the green planet. His nature photos from rivers and lakes to grass and trees, all things are resilient, fragile yet strong, silent yet magical, lonely yet great.

Contemplating beauty

On this occasion, Hoang Le Giang shares with Dong Nai Weekend readers his own secrets and experiences when taking beautiful wildlife photos.
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* Many of your photographs are “beautiful as paintings”, and can even be mistaken for abstract paintings. Can you share about the “intersection” in this artistic world of photography?

- For me, the journey of photography is also a journey of contemplation and inner dialogue. The photos in the exhibition Bardo - The Middle World clearly show the anxiety and confusion standing halfway between art and reality, transferring emotions of joy and sadness and expressing the desire for freedom.

“Looking at my work and at my life, I ask myself: Am I a deep-seated rock, a vibrant beach, or a snow-capped mountaintop? Or because I am nothing, I have the potential to become anything?” - Hoang Le Giang talks about a photo taken in Northern Norway.

The series of photos depicting natural landscapes is also associated with human stories. Nature changes as the nature of the universe rotates, and cultural communities are also at risk of disappearing. Therefore, these are works that preserve unrepeatable moments due to the impact of time and climate change.

The view from above erases the photographer’s ego. There is no main character, only nature being eroded by time speaking and moving. The beauty here is not to be admired but to be contemplated, becoming a mirror reflecting familiar concerns: to go or to stop, to pursue passion or to fulfill responsibility, to live by emotion or to live by reason? I think all of us, at some point, have stood in such a middle ground. There is no right answer. There is only choice and commitment.

“Photography is the most honest way for me to dialogue with the world and myself.”

Photographer Hoang Le Giang

Pictures tell the story

* With the genre of wildlife photography mainly taken with flycam/drone equipment, what is your secret and experience?

- In my opinion, taking beautiful photos only requires the right composition and beautiful scenery. The difficult part is that the photo has the author's story and concept.

I pursue an unplanned shooting style and am not good at post-production editing, so I choose to travel to a place many times to capture the moment I want. During the process of making the Bardo series, I made trips to remote lands such as the Himalayas, Mongolia, many times to Tibet, Nepal, Pakistan, Norway, Iceland, harsh roads in the cold Arctic… just to find the moments to press the shutter, the photos that evoke ideas for the viewer.

The work “Winter Caravan” captures the harsh migration journey of nomads and their horses in the far west of Mongolia by Hoang Le Giang in the Bardo exhibition.

Along with that is reading books and doing in-depth research on the geography and climate of that land. For example, to take the special prize photo of Noirfoto Contest 2024, I needed experience in assessing the weather conditions and enough health to carry the equipment up the mountain in Ladakh (India). Calmness and capturing the special moment are the most important things to take that photo.

When taking photos with a flycam/drone, the photographer must always comply with local regulations, especially in border areas and areas near military barracks. Be careful not to cause trouble, especially noise, to residents or animals and birds in the wild. Most drone photographers need to be mentally prepared for unexpected incidents such as: loss of signal or damage...

* 15 years of pursuing photography, owning more than 120 thousand photos, how do you manage your digital images for easy searching and use?

- Actually, I don't take too many photos on each trip (about 2 thousand) so I can almost remember what I took and store them by location and date - month - year. When I come back, I will save 2 copies of the photos on 2 different hard drives to make sure I don't lose any files.

* Thank you!

Loyalty

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/dong-nai-cuoi-tuan/202508/hoang-le-giang-ve-tranh-thien-nhien-bang-may-anh-fc717a5/