About this Event
Join us at Autograph for a workshop exploring how we experience photography through sight, sound and practice.
Artist Nhu Xuan Hua works instinctively to create photographs that reflect on her memories and family history. Hua’s portraiture photographs are displayed amongst trinkets, objects and flower vases arranged on ornamental shelves, drawing on the motifs of Vietnamese temples and alluding to symbolic elements that echo her life experiences.
Sound artist and researcher Cường Minh Bá Phạm’s personal practice works between the intersections of sound, community and archives. Together the artists explore visual culture as not only a sensory experience, but a critical reflection of our past and present.
Attendees can expect to take part in practical exercises as creators and interpreters, drawing inspiration from Hua’s exhibition at Autograph; and the artists’ respective practices. There will be refreshments available during the event including Bánh Cuốn which are Vietnamese rice rolls.
The ticket price for this event is £10. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. If this ticket price is unaffordable for you, please get in touch with Mendhi at [email protected] about free ticketing options.
Read more on Autograph's website
Workshop Lead by
Nhu Xuan Hua (b. 1989) is a French artist and photographer of Vietnamese heritage, working between Paris and London.
Known for her distinctive visual language, she collaborates with international fashion houses such as Dior, Maison Margiela, Kenzo, and Gucci, while contributing to leading publications like Vogue, Time Magazine, and Dazed Beauty.
Originally trained in fashion photography, Hua has gradually shifted toward a multidisciplinary and introspective practice that explores memory, identity, and displacement. Her solo exhibitions at Huis Marseille (Amsterdam) and Fotografie Forum Frankfurt (DE) have marked her emergence as a powerful voice in contemporary photography.
In 2021, she returned to Paris and began weaving personal narrative into her work. Her solo exhibition Hug of a Swan at Huis Marseille reflected on six years of practice, blending fashion commissions with autonomous works tied to her Vietnamese heritage. Her first book, Tropism: Consequences of a Displaced Memory (Area Books), uses family archives and digital manipulation to explore the erosion and transformation of memory. The project was shown at AnneLaure Buffard Inc. during Paris Gallery Weekend 2023 and invited by the Institut français to be part of Photo Hanoi — Vietnam’s first photography biennale.
In 2024, she co-created Heaven and Hell with artist Vimala Pons for the Rencontres d’Arles. This bold, multidisciplinary exhibition merged photography, film, documentary, and sound installation, offering a new sensory and spatial experience of photographic storytelling. Her work is held in public and private collections, including Huis Marseille, the JP Morgan Collection, and CNAP (Centre national des arts plastiques), which recently acquired her piece Family Portrait at the Wedding, Archive from year 85’ for France’s national collection.
Cường Minh Bá Phạm is a practitioner and researcher working at the intersection of sound, community, and archives.
He hosts a monthly NTS show under the handle ‘Phambinho,’ where he and occasional guests attempt to musically reframe ‘Asia’ as a contested paradigm. In addition, he has developed long-form projects for festivals and institutions across Europe and Asia.
He is also the co-founder of An Việt Archives, which oversees the largest known collection of documents, photos, and other objects related to the British-Vietnamese experience, currently housed at Hackney Archives.
Cường is in the first year of a UKRI-funded PhD at the University of Birmingham, as part of the larger SoundDecisions project. His research explores sound archives as sites of co-creation, co-discovery, and interaction for diasporic groups who imagine the Mekong Delta as home.
Your Visit to Autograph
Everyone is welcome at Autograph. Planning a visit? Have a look at our Visit Us page to find out more about getting to the gallery, accessibility and more.
Limited tickets: Autograph's events are very popular. We reccomend booking in advance.
Accessible venue: Autograph welcomes people with all types of disabilities.
Seating: This is a seated event.
Step free: Our building and entrance is step free. A wheelchair accessible lift goes to all floors.
Location: This event will take place in the Studio on the ground floor.
Materials: The ticket price for this event includes materials.
Refreshments: There will be light refreshments available trhoughout the event.
Have any questions about your visit? Get in touch with Mendhi at [email protected]
In Collaboration with An Việt Archives
This workshop series is in partnership with An Việt Archives - a Hackney based collection of community archives of Vietnamese history in the UK and beyond. The events build on An Việt's ongoing exploration of archives, memory work, history and knowledge-making. Visit Autograph's website to read more about the workshops.
Ticketing policy
The ticket price for this event is £10. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. If this ticket price is unaffordable for you please get in touch with Mendhi at [email protected] about free ticketing options. Autograph's events are popular, and often sell out. We recommend booking a ticket in advance. If you need to cancel your ticket for any reason, you can receive a refund up to 24 hours before the start of the event. You do not need to bring your paper ticket to the event.
Autograph supported by
Supported using public funding by Arts Council England.
Nhu Xuan Hua: Of Walking on Fire is suppported by Arts Council England and Galerie Anne-Laure Buffard.
Autograph ABP Registered in England | VAT no. 244105051 | Registered Charity no. 1127712
Images: 1) Nhu Xuan Hua, The White dress, The Roses and the Black Window - Archive from the year'72[detail], 2017-2022. Courtesy of the artist and Anne-Laure Buffard, France. Copyright © Nhu Xuan Hua. 2) Autograph, London. Photograph by Kate Elliot.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Autograph, Rivington Place, London, United Kingdom
GBP 10.00 to GBP 15.00
