QT Luong

Last updated
QT Luong
Born
Quang-Tuan Luong

Paris, France
NationalityFrench, American
Known for Photography, Computer Vision

QT Luong (born 1964) is a French-Vietnamese born American photographer known for his work in the U.S. National Parks, [1] as well as for work in the theory of computer vision. In 2022, Luong received the Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography from the Sierra Club. [2]

Contents

Early life and career

Luong was born in Paris of Vietnamese parents and graduated from École Polytechnique. He earned a Ph.D. in computer science at University of Paris-Sud in 1992. His thesis, in computer vision, [3] introduced the concepts of Fundamental matrix and camera auto-calibration. In 2008, together with Olivier Faugeras and Steve Maybank, he received the initial Koenderink Prize, for fundamental contributions in computer vision. [4] Luong left his career as a research scientist at SRI International to become a full-time photographer in 2007. [1]

Photography of the National Parks

While in school, Luong had developed an interest in photography as a means to capture his mountaineering outings. [5] They would include climbs of difficult frozen waterfalls [6] and a solo ascent of Denali. [7]

After moving to California to work at UC Berkeley in 1993, influenced by the West Coast landscape photography tradition, he learned to use large format cameras, and in the process created the website largeformatphotography.info. His growing interest for large format photography and the exhilaration of discovering the diversity of the U.S. national parks inspired him to try to photograph each of them with a large format 5x7 film camera. He made his permanent home in California. By 2002 he had photographed all the (then) 57 national parks and was the first to do so. [8] [9]

He has since continued to work in the national parks in great depth using his uncommon wilderness skills, [10] [11] creating a singularly comprehensive record of America's landscape. The New York Times wrote of him: [12] 

 No one has captured the vast beauty of America’s landscape as comprehensively

In 2013, he was the first to photograph all the 59 national parks. [1] [13] He continued that streak in 2018, when Gateway Arch was established as the 60th national park [14] and again in 2019 when Indiana Dunes was established as the 61st national park [15] [16] and White Sands was established as the 62nd national park. [17] As of 2019, Luong continues to use a large format film camera to photograph the national parks. He is the only person known to have photographed each of the U.S. national parks on film. [18]

In 2009, Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan featured him as the only living artist in The National Parks: America’s Best Idea [19] and used his photograph Yosemite, Winter Sunset for the series' cover. In 2016, the U.S. Postal Service used his photograph of the Little Missouri River winding through the badlands of North Dakota’s Theodore Roosevelt National Park on a stamp celebrating the National Park Service’s Centennial, [20] [21] and in 2023 they featured three of his photographs in a series of postage stamps celebrating waterfalls. [22]

In 2020, Luong received the Robin W. Winks Award for Enhancing Public Understanding of National Parks from the National Parks Conservation Association. [23]

Photography of the National Monuments

In 2018, as a reaction to the review of national monuments via Executive Order 13792 and the subsequent reductions in size of Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, Luong embarked on a project to photograph all the 22 national monuments on land under review, resulting in the publication in 2021 of the book Our National Monuments: America's Hidden Gems. [24] The book was a winner of the National Outdoor Book Awards in 2022. [25]

Exhibits and Publications

Luong organized the only exhibition featuring one large-format color photograph for each of the national parks. [26] After debuting in 2010 at the National Heritage Museum [27] [28] [29] it traveled across the country [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] and in 2019 started touring internationally in China at the Li Yuan Photographic Art Museum in Ningbo. [35]

In 2016, to celebrate the National Park Service's Centennial, Luong published his major book Treasured Lands: A Photographic Odyssey through America’s National Parks. It received positive reviews, with some considering it to be the best photography book about the national parks, [36] [12] [7] and won several national book awards [37] including the Benjamin Franklin Award [38] from the Independent Book Publishers Association, the Independent Publisher Book Awards, [39] and the Nautilus Book Awards. [40]

Books

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "San Jose photographer captures images of all 59 national parks". mercurynews.com. 24 June 2017. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  2. ↑ "Sierra Club Announces 2022 National Award Winners". 21 September 2022.
  3. ↑ Q.T. Luong (1992). Matrice fondamentale et auto-calibration en vision par ordinateur. PhD Thesis, University of Paris, Orsay.
  4. ↑ "ECCV 2008 - European Conference on Computer Vision". eccv2008.inrialpes.fr. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  5. ↑ Souvenirs from High Places, A History of Mountaineering Photography by Joe Benson, The Mountaineers, pp 138-139, 1998
  6. ↑ "North America, Canada, Various Ice Ascents". American Alpine Journal. 1997. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
  7. 1 2 "An inside look at the national parks". hcn.org. 13 December 2016. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  8. ↑ View Camera Magazine, Quang-Tuan Luong: The National Parks Project, by Kerry Thalmann, Sept-Oct 2003
  9. ↑ Feinberg, Jody. "Photographer captures the beauty of America's national parks". patriotledger.com. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  10. ↑ "An Expert Take on the Parks: QT Luong". theactivetimes.com. 3 August 2013. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  11. ↑ "Transient As The Light - Outdoor Photographer". outdoorphotographer.com. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  12. 1 2 Browning, Dominique (1 December 2016). "Great Outdoors: Landscapes, Both Natural and Created by Human Hands". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  13. ↑ Treasured Lands: A Photographic Odyssey through American's National Park, page 69
  14. ↑ "Renowned photographer travels to St. Louis to capture Gateway Arch National Park". stlmag.com. 12 March 2018.
  15. ↑ "Photographer stalls printing of book to get images of Indiana Dunes, America's newest national park". chicagotribune.com/. 21 February 2019.
  16. ↑ "National Park Photographer Completes His Portfolio with Visit to Indiana Dunes". wttw.com. 5 March 2019.
  17. ↑ "Photographer captures newest national park". abqjournal.com. 24 December 2019.
  18. ↑ "Photographer completes mission to capture every national park on film (again)". wgntv.com/. 27 February 2019.
  19. ↑ "The National Parks: America's Best Idea: People - PBS". www.pbs.org. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  20. ↑ "Theodore Roosevelt National Park part of centennial celebration". about.usps.com. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  21. ↑ "QT Luong - San Jose Photographer - Tribute to Americas National Parks - Photography - Nature - Silicon Valley - Metroactive". www.metroactive.com. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  22. ↑ "National Parks photographer immortalizes Dark Hollow Falls on Forever Stamp". 19 June 2023.
  23. ↑ "Awards and Recognition".
  24. ↑ "New book a 'monument' to preserved wildlands in Southern California and beyond - Daily Bulletin". dailybulletin.com/. 18 November 2021. Retrieved 18 December 2021.
  25. ↑ "2022 Winners of the National Outdoor Book Awards".
  26. ↑ Cheng, Jay. "Like an Asian American Ansel Adams". thebaycitybeacon.com. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  27. ↑ "This land is our land". Boston.com. Retrieved 23 December 2017– via The Boston Globe.
  28. ↑ Feeney, Mark (26 March 2010). "America the beautiful". Boston.com. Retrieved 23 December 2017– via The Boston Globe.
  29. ↑ Bergeron, Chris. "Explore U.S. National Parks through National Heritage Museum exhibit". metrowestdailynews.com. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  30. ↑ "Museum of Science exhibit captures US National Parks on a large scale - The Boston Globe". bostonglobe.com. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  31. ↑ Morsch, Mike. "Picture perfect: 'Treasured Lands' photo exhibit featured at Meadow Lakes". centraljersey.com. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  32. ↑ "Treasured Lands: Photographs of National Parks by Q.T. Luong at Art Ark Gallery, San Jose - Artinfo". blouinartinfo.com. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  33. ↑ "Photographer spent years cataloging beauty in national parks". sfchronicle.com. 15 November 2017. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  34. ↑ "Like photography? Why you'll find a lot of it all over Modesto in February". modbee.com.
  35. ↑ "他把美国国家公园拍了个遍，这个风光摄影展不可错过". 鄞州曰報 (Yon Zhon Daily).
  36. ↑ "Treasured Lands: A Photographic Odyssey Through America's National Parks". Independent Publisher - Book Review. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  37. ↑ "Treasured Lands - A Photographic Odyssey through America's National Parks". treasuredlandsbook.com. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  38. ↑ "29th Annual IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award™ Winners - Independent Book Publishers Association". www.ibpa-online.org. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  39. ↑ Awards, IPPY (3 October 2017). "2017 Medalists". www.ippyawards.com. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  40. ↑ "2016 Silver Winners – Nautilus Book Awards". nautilusbookawards.com. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
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