Framed Photograph by Don Hong-Oai

A framed photograph by Chinese American photographer Don Hong-Oai (1929-2004). Entitled "Three Friends", the work is a sepia toned gelatin silver print. It has inscription of "taken in Beijin in 1985" and with three artist's stamps in red ink. Presented matted and framed under Plexiglas. The sight is 10.5"h x 13.5"w. It is one of the matching pair from an American collection.
Don Hong-Oai was born in Canton, China but raised and educated in Saigon, Vietnam. At age 13 he began an apprenticeship at a Chinese photo and portrait shop. In 1979 he immigrated to the United States and settled in the Chinatown of San Francisco.
Don began making a living by selling his landscape photographs in front of Macy’s and began to receive recognition for his craftsmanship. His style was heavily influenced by the legendary photographer Long Chin-San and his technique of layering negatives. By taking three negatives, foreground, middle ground, and far ground, and selecting a subject from each negative. The photographs of Don Hong-Oai are made in a unique style, which can be considered Asian pictorialism. This method of adapting a Western art for Eastern purposes probably originated in the 1940s in Hong Kong. One of its best-known practitioners was the great master Long Chin-San (who died in the 1990s at the age of 104) with whom Don Hong-Oai studied. With the delicate beauty and traditional motifs of Chinese painting (birds, boats, mountains, etc.) in mind, photographers of this school used more than one negative to create a beautiful picture, often using visual allegories. Realism was not a goal. Don Hong-Oai was one of the last photographers to work in this manner. He is also arguably the best. He has won hundreds of awards given by photography societies throughout Asia and by international juries of Kodak and Nikon.