The American Life focuses on a first-person perspective as an international student, who was born and raised in Viet Nam, later moving to the United State. My work investigates the blend of American and Asian cultures within an American home. Have been living in America for half a decade with the same family, I’m still reminded of cultural differences that still exist. The photographs included in this series are re-enactments which focus on the cultural habits that materialized while sharing a household with my host family. These photographs don’t necessarily represent the truth about the time I have spent living here but to reflect my own comprehension of flawless America. As someone who is considered as an outsider to this culture to become the bridge in the middle of both cultures. Furthermore, the project explores the combination of cultural aspects that I and my American host parents have been sharing. Working alongside my host parents, these images highlighted our cultural differences and how we are coexisting. Although I have never struggled to adapt to eat American food from time to time, I still have a craving for the flavors from my motherland. The authentic taste that nowhere but the home could provide. This is also the irony of America - the melting pot of the world and blended all those unique flavors together. It also reflected the core value of American culture is to borrow and blending different cultures from around the world. There is a saying in my country: “To be unified but not dissolved” which means to be able to adapt to the lifestyle but still preserve the original root of themselves. Through these series of photographs, I want to offer the audience a standpoint, an eye from the outside to be able to look back at how everyone in a way is related and connected. After all, my photographs are my way of expressing my experiences while living in the United States as a stranger to culture, to learns my way to reorganize myself and to be Americanized and maintain my traditional values.
