Documenting Legends
Working with legends in any area of life is always a challenge. Sometimes they do not want to be photographed, other times they want to direct the creative person to show a certain image they want to project to the world.
Working with Trần Mạnh Tuấn however is not like this. At least not in my experience.But perhaps I have been lucky.
My history with Tran Manh Tuan goes back to 2007 or 08 when I was tasked with photographing him and another artist at his, and at that time only, Jazz club in Saigon called Sax & Art. Right upon entering Tuan was friendly and welcoming and allowed me to photography freely in the the small smokey space.
We would meet sporadically over the years, sometimes at an event, others at a concert or his Sax & Art Club that was a mainstay of more chill evenings out in Saigon at that time.
But there would be a large gap in our crossing paths that would happen when I moved to HoiAn and then Covid and the closing of his club.
This space in meeting often made me wonder what had happened to him and if he was still around or if he had decided to retire.
I was about to find out in September of 2024. A close friend and music producer had come back to Vietnam with his now lovely wife and it just so happened that he had produced some of Tuans albums and songs in the past. He mentioned that he was going to meet Tuan at his club, now located in the basement of his home, and help him record a track for a small project.
Obviously I wanted to some and make some photos. It is not every day that photographers are allowed to enter a recording space. Mostly because we can be a distraction and sensitive sound equipment picks up every click of the shutter. But, this was an informal session so I was allowed to pop in.
Obviously we all age, and Tuan was looking older, He had apparently had a stroke at some point in the past few years and had battled some other health issues and had some problems walking. But once he hopped on the Saxophone its like none of it mattered.
I have always enjoyed watching artist collaborate and am a big fan of collaborations with my own work. Hell, 99% of my early career was collaborations with singers, painters, graphic designers, layout designers and the like. So I can see when a collaboration clicks right away. The artist respects the guidance of the producer and the producer lets the artist create. it is fun to watch.
I think I spent about two hours photographing both men creating something completely new. The harsh directional lights of the club stage set the mood for excellent black and white shots of the process and the moments between to long standing collaborators.
The image gallery below, while in no way is as epic as a concert shoot. Shows what I feel is a close and intimate moment between two musical veterans on both sides of the creative table. Making something special.
