A Hundred Times Nguyen Analysis

Alfredo Jaar’s photograph ‘A Hundred Times Nguyen’ 1994 explores the spectacle of ‘compassion fatigue’ and was created due to the vast incarceration of Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong in 1991 (Jaar, press release, 2017-2018). ‘A Hundred Times Nguyen’ leaves a mark on the memory of the viewer due to its simplicity and stark nature. Jaar (1994) took these four portraits - between 5 second intervals- of a young girl; Nguyen Thi Thuy, age unknown. The young girl’s face has a sweet yet wary expression on it, with her beautiful black shiny sweeping hair covering part of her delicate skin, captivating the viewers with her intense stare, generating the feeling that she is looking right at you, telling you her story through her eyes. The hope and possibility that radiates

The four photographs of Nguyen are a part of a 100-piece series, (which included frames, a book and a constant rolling video) this series was created in order to convey the grand scale of the injustice that was taking place in Hong Kong. Jaar entitled the photographs A, B, C and D and then proceeded to put them into 24 possible arrangements. The repetition of the four photographs across a 100-piece scale challenges the natural instinct to view a photograph for a couple of minutes and then move on to the next as we are forced to engage with the same four photographs over and over again, therefore creating a zoetrope effect experienced by the viewer. This encourages individuals in society to become fully immersed in Nguyen’s fascinating expression, standing in the place of many equally troubled migrants from Vietnam. His photograph of Nguyen pleads that individuals remember the appalling situation herself and others were exposed to, thus achieving sympathy as prayers are said for