Do you enjoy taking a moment to stop and smell the utopia? If so then surf on over to Lumika.org and see what you’re missing.
Lumika is the online photo gallery showcasing the work of photographer Tommy Huynh. Surf to this site and be prepared to be transported out of your office chair and into the heart of one of 20 countries the artist has photographed during his globe trotting adventures.
There are eight main galleries to surf on Lumika.org. Each focused on a single nation. An additional 13 galleries, representing Huynh’s work from 12 other countries are listed as “under construction”. However, they are easily accessible through internal links on the website. The 13th gallery is dedicated solely to the pageantry of Semana Santa (Spanish for “The Holy Week”) in Mexico City.
If it is common to describe writers as having a distinct “voice”, then it would be apt to describe photographers as having a distinct “eye”. If it is the consistency and the vibrancy of that “voice” that distinguishes great writers from the rest of their peers, then the same can be said for a photographer’s “eye”.
The blistering array of photos on Lumika proves that Tommy Huynh has developed a clear, strong “eye”. He has the unique ability to connect us to the people in his photographs in a manner that is simultaneously universal and unique; visceral and detached; emotional and intellectual.
Amazingly, he creates the same atmosphere in his landscape photography, too. An example of this is his work entitled “Datanla Falls near Dalat, Vietnam, 1994″. This piece, found in the Vietnam gallery, Landscape section, stunned this avid talker into silence. From the first moment I saw it, I felt as if I had set foot in that country a thousand times before. At the same time, the photograph emphasized that Vietnam is a country more remote from my reality than any I had ever visited. The experience compelled me to surf other countries on Lumika. I found the experience to be consistent regardless of where on the website I surfed.
Lumika is a site to which you will want to surf again and again. It’s easy to navigate, has plenty of original content, and is visually arresting. English is the primary language of Lumika, but that should not be a problem for non-English speakers. Tommy Huynh’s artistry transcends written language. One last note about Tommy: according to his website, “5% of the proceeds from print sales will go to a charity applicable to the country where the print was photographed”. That is a very good thing.
Finally, while very young children may not be able to appreciate the artwork on the site, Lumika.org still rates a .com Dish! “E” for everybody. Want to know more about Tommy Huynh and what inspired him to create this site? Click here.
