Michael Nguyen

Artist | Photographer I Curator I Editor
  
Location: Munich, Bavaria, Germany
Nationality: German
Biography: “Michael Nguyen is a photographic poet whose lens is trained on the small and ordinary, but through his subjective perspective, he transforms them into something extraordinary, imbuing them with a new soul. His photography is a masterful... MORE
Events Exhibitions News
A selection of photographs of Michael Nguyen are now now available as Fine Art Prints from the online Gallery Artmajeur, Paris
michael nguyen
Apr 24, 2023
“With my architectural photography, I am on the search for the aesthetic qualities of buildings in their urban spatial effect. Above all, I am interested in the visual richness.”

Michael Nguyen is a “publicity shy” (Merkur daily newspaper Munich) photo artist, a photographic poet who moves away from the mainstream, at the same time blurs genres.

"Most of the photos could only be taken because Nguyen has a special eye for his surroundings and gives even the mundane a second view." (Süddeutsche Zeitung). Nguyen highlights vivid, intense and often overlooked details of our daily reality.

In his photography he focuses on architectural details and urban landscapes. Michael Nguyen plays hyper-realistically with the intensity of color, light, contrast, sharpness, clarity and texture, creating more vivid representations of what we perceive with the naked eye.

Other of his photographs are minimalist and focus on details and their geometric shapes detached from the environment.In architecture, the term facade refers to the outwardly visible wall surfaces of a building, including windows, doors and the likes. Materials are often concrete, glass, wood, brick or masonry made of sand-lime bricks. But for Michael Nguyen, they are not just that inanimate materials or elements. They are like the face of a human, like the shape of body, or the clothes, which communicate with the other humans and tell stories.

That’s why in most of his photographs, Nguyen does not show an overall view of a building, but a look at the details and particularities. Just like when we approach a person and have a chance to look closer, we see their beautiful eyes, we hear their unique voice from those open lips, or sometimes just an interesting pattern of the dress they wear attracts us.

With these settings in mind, look at the photos of Nguyen. Buildings are not static objects with five facades, four side walls and the roof. They are lively, dynamic sculptures. The windows are their eyes, that reveal a part of their soul. The open doors are talking with us, inviting us to come in, to hear their inner stories. And the graphic layout of bricks, of glass, of wood or whatever the genuine architects create are their eye-catching clothes, which make our cities, our urban spaces more beautiful, more vibrant.

The series “By The Roadside“ with its various parts is Michael Nguyen's most important field of work. Photographs from Germany and neighboring countries. If we walk with our eyes open, we can see interesting, beautiful, and also ugly things along the road every day. And if we walk with not only with our eyes but also with our heart and mind open, you will discover a world that would otherwise remain closed to us. Sometimes spectacular. Sometimes ordinary but surprisingly miraculous. Michael Nguyen accompanies us on little journeys through places in Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Austria, and elsewhere, to discover what the random walk leads us to.

In addition to his artistic work, Michael Nguyen is editor-in-chief of Tagree, online magazine for photography & art.


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Also by Michael Nguyen —

Events News

Michael Nguyen curates the Gauting International Photo Summer 2024 - Munich Metropolitan Area

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Events News

Michael Nguyen’s photographs and artworks are now to purchase on Saatchi Art

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Article in Munichs Daily Newspaper Münchner Merkur about Michael Nguyen’s Facade photographs

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Michael Nguyen, Bronze Winner at the TIFA 2023 – Tokyo International Foto Awards

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Events News

Art in Public Spaces. Michael Nguyen’s Facade Photographs in a window exhibition

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SIENA AWARDS Open Air Exhibiton with a photo artwork by Michael Nguyen

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ArchEyes Magazine: The Mudam by I.M.Pei - Where Old Meets New. Photographs by Michael Nguyen

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ADF Magazine, Tokyo: A Spectacular Ceiling by Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto

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ArchEyes Magazine: A Visual Symphony: Budapest's House of Music Captured by Michael Nguyen

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Eight Shades of Grey: The Facade of the Med Campus Graz photographed by Michael Nguyen

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New high-profile work by Michael Nguyen on the KfW building in Frankfurt am Main

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For ArchEyes Magazine: Melodic Rhythms, geometric Ornamentation, Play of Colors and cheerful Dynamics

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ADF Web Magazin Tokyo: A Facade Symphony of Colors written by Prof. Dr. phil. Rainer Funke

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Michael Nguyen captured true Masterpieces of Facade Art by Architects Matthias Sauerbruch and Louisa Hutton – Tagree

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Events News

Michael Nguyen became a Member of the Jury of the URBAN Press Award 2023 beside the Magnum Photographers Alec Soth and Jerome Sessini

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NPO Aoyama Design Forum featured Facades Photographs by Michael Nguyen of three architectural works of art by Architects Matthias Sauerbruch and..

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ArchiECHO featured Michael Nguyen’s Photo Project: Perfection in Blue-White. An extraordinary Architectural Ensemble in Munich

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New photo series “Urban Discoveries” by Michael Nguyen

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Michael Nguyen’s Exhibition at Max Planck Institute is extended to January 1, 2023

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Events News

Exhibition Report in the Daily Newspaper Münchner Merkur

Michael Nguyen / Munich, Martinsried, Bavaria, Germany
A selection of photographs of Michael Nguyen are now now available as Fine Art Prints from the online Gallery Artmajeur, Paris by Michael Nguyen
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