We're Just Here For the Bad Guys
(2019-2022)
The following are selected excerpts.
My father left our family in 2010 to return to Vietnam to start his life anew, and a decade later, was diagnosed with severe brain cancer. As his health began to wane drastically, and my feelings of deepened alienation and betrayal resurfaced, my father in an attempt to mend our relationship made a proposition to collaborate upon a series of photographs documenting what was ultimately an unsuccessful journey to recovery.
In the wake of his passing, our brief collaboration unveiled the irremediable complexities and tensions left between us. An allegory inverted, We're Just Here For the Bad Guys depicts my Prodigal’s father voyaging outwards for success and phantasmal glory at the abandonment of his son, now confronted by the implosion and evidence of his own shame; myself, stuck in an obligatory forgiveness.
