Lens
Hanoi, 2012
Shot on Nikon D70
Muscat, 2013
Shot on Leica M6
Sapa, 2014
Shot on iPhone 5C
Featured on National Geographic
Ubud, 2017
Shot on Huawei P9
Mumbai, 2015
Shot on Leica M3
Malacca, 2016
Shot on Huawei P9
Ho Chi Minh City, 2012
Shot on Nikon D70
Sapa, 2013
Shot on Leica M6
Hanoi, 2014
Shot on Nikon D70
Featured on Lonely Planet
Sicily, 2017
Shot on Huawei P9
Singapore, 2015
Shot on Sony α7
Ubud, 2016
Shot on Leica M3
Still Life
Selective commercial still life for Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Dior, Maje and more
Gallery
From the frenetic pulse of Bombay's teeming streets to the symphony of motorbikes threading through Hanoi's perennial traffic jams, Benoît Daniel-Pham's documentaries capture the unscripted poetry of human existence - fleeting vignettes drawn from the world's overlooked margins. Through his lens, these images transcend mere documentation; they become quiet testaments to resilience and rhythm, distilling the universal in the profoundly local. This perspective, honed by an artist's innate curiosity rather than formal decree, underscores a belief in photography's power to forge empathy across divides, rendering the ephemeral tangible and inviting viewers to linger in the spaces between what is seen and what is felt.
What elevates these works is their narrative ambition: each frame a chapter in an ongoing chronicle of cultural confluence, where the artist's wanderings - spanning shadowed alleys in Saigon, ominous garment factory in Bangladesh, mist-shrouded rice terraces in Bali, and the neon haze of Tokyo's underbelly - ignite a ceaseless drive to unearth stories that might otherwise dissolve into silence. These journeys, far from mere escapades, serve as crucibles for his storytelling ethos, fueling a commitment to authenticity that challenges the gloss of commercial imagery and reaffirms documentary's role in illuminating shared humanity. This sincere and realistic poetic vision has earned him features in esteemed media outlets such as National Geographic, Lonely Planet, The Guardian, BBC Travel, and Condé Nast Traveler, where his images resonate as evocative bridges between distant worlds and intimate reflections. At the heart of this pursuit lies a guiding philosophy: that art, in its purest form, must articulate its own essence, if it falters in this endeavor, it has yet to attain its measure of merit - ensuring each image stands self-sufficient, unburdened by explanation.
Dominating his output from 2014 to 2017, a stark black-and-white aesthetic further sharpened this vision, stripping away color's distractions to foreground texture, shadow, and soul, rendering the world's raw edges with an unflinching, almost monastic clarity that continues to resonate in this archival collection. Underpinning it all was the artist's profound passion for film photography, which he pursued with unyielding experimentation, pushing its tactile alchemy to its fullest potential. Two instruments stand as cornerstones of this devotion: the Nikon D70, his early digital companion that democratized his roving eye with its unpretentious reliability, and the Leica M6, a rangefinder icon whose mechanical precision and luminous optics became synonymous with his pursuit of timeless verity, each not merely a tool, but a philosophical extension of his hand, evoking the deliberate ritual of exposure in an age of instantaneity. This affinity reached its zenith through Leica's steadfast support, which amplified his explorations and affirmed the enduring allure of analog craft in an evolving medium. Extending this ethos into the digital frontier, he championed the revolutionary Huawei P9 - a groundbreaking Huawei-Leica collaboration that transformed mobile photography by merging compact portability with optical excellence. As Leica's ambassador for its launch, he harnessed the device to distill ethereal backstage narratives from fashion weeks, his evocative captures not only showcasing its prowess but also igniting a new dawn for mobile expression, inspiring creators worldwide to wield everyday tools as conduits for profound, on-the-move storytelling.