Global Gallery

James Tuong Nguyen

James Tuong Nguyen has a BA in Photography and Political Science from Northeastern Illinois University, where he also works as a Media Services Specialist. He is also a freelance commercial and... read more James Tuong Nguyen has a BA in Photography and Political Science from Northeastern Illinois University, where he also works as a Media Services Specialist. He is also a freelance commercial and documentary photographer. For the past 8 years he has been deeply interested in how social and economic conditions effect the poor both in the US and in his country of birth, Vietnam. He has done a photo documentary series on Chicago's Street People (1997), on Vietnam's migrants in Korea (2003), on sex workers, HIV positive drug users, and street children in Ho ChiMinh City as well as the rural poor (2001, 2003, 2005), and HIV/AIDS in France (2005) He also worked with writer Michael McColly on HIV and AIDS articles that have appeared in Nimrod, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and TEST Positive Aware (an international AIDS service journal). On his last trip to Southeast Asia, he worked on a photo documentary series on the economic changes on Vietnam's poor and with AIDS advocate and socialworker Pham Van on Cambodia's HIV epidemic. Photos from these documentary projects have been used by educational programs and booklets for the United Nations. He is also a board member of The Guild Complex, a community organization that develops literary programs to support cross-community dialogue in Chicago. He has presented and talked about his work at different university and colleges, such as North Park University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Aurora University, and Northeastern Illinois University. He has also documented an international scientific expedition for oceanographers sponsored by the Field Museum of Natural History of Chicago (2001).