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DNO - In the mind of Da Nang photographer Le Nguyen Van Happy, better known as Le Happy, the essence of the city is best told through its food.
With a camera and a playful imagination, this 35-year-old has turned local dishes into striking visual narratives that blend culture, memory and celebration.
His latest project, ‘The City of Festivals and Flavours’, transforms iconic dishes into miniature worlds where food becomes both landscape and stage.
In ‘The Bread City Looks Up at Fireworks’, Da Nang’s International Fireworks Festival, an emblem of the city’s contemporary culture, is reimagined through tiny figurines basking in radiant light beside a golden, oven-fresh loaf of bread.
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In ‘Dragon Bridge Leading the Fishing Boats’ noodles and fish cakes flow like a river, with tiny boats drifting between flavours and tradition.
Even Da Nang’s beaches find new form in ‘Surfing on Pork Rice Paper Rolls’ where the act of wrapping rolls mirrors the rhythm of the sea.
Before this, Happy gained attention with 'The Layerings', a still-life tribute to humble street vendors, featuring ‘banh trang dap’, ‘banh mi bot loc’ and ‘banh beo uot’ dishes tied to the city’s collective memory.
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Each body of work demands weeks of preparation: sketching ideas, sourcing props, shooting, and meticulous post-production.
For each series, Happy carefully chooses a distinct visual language. ‘The City of Festivals and Flavours’ adopts the Miniature style, placing tiny human figures within the context of local dishes, to create playful, youthful scenes full of energy.
Meanwhile, ‘The Layerings’ follows the Still Life Art tradition, with carefully arranged compositions that honour the beauty and street-side stories of everyday food.
What sets his work apart is not just technical skill, but his philosophy. For Le Happy, photographing food is not about aesthetics alone, it is about preserving the soul of Da Nang. His miniature worlds invite viewers to taste the city’s spirit, even without taking a bite.
Le Happy dreams of staging a large exhibition devoted entirely to Da Nang’s food and cultural icons, allowing locals and visitors alike to see the city through fresh yet deeply authentic perspectives.