Published in MOB Journal Volume 22 Issue 33
Model: Dương Trang
Photography/Direction: Jonathan Poirier
Photography Assistants: Dorian Merveille, Aymen Douaifia
Stylist/HMUA: Hoàng Hoài Thu
Stylist Assistant: Khổng Nhật Linh
Graphic Design: Younesse Moubarik (framesbyframes)
Production: idt Studio
Myst
Ever since the first time I got to see Ha Long Bay from afar, I have always thought of it as a mystical place. Even without knowing about the legends surrounding the area. I remember looking at the bay and thinking: “this is out of this world”. There is something uniquely fantastic about those majestic and misty mountains emanating from the water. After a couple of months living in this city, I have yet to explore what lies within the bay, seeing it from afar always triggers an otherworldly feeling in me. The bay’s origin can be explained rationally. Yet, I cannot identify any sense of rationality within that quirky feeling. Mysticism cannot be explained rationally according to Staal. On the one hand, Muhuyid Din-Ibnu Arabi’s concept of “Absolute Existant” is what defines God. Therefore, “Absolute Existence” and “Absolute Existant” cannot be separated from one another. The absolute existant must lie within the soul of a human for the human experience to be absolute. On the other hand, Arabi’s abstractness leads me to question what is my absolute existant. I argue that it is simply the whole spectrum of my emotions. Every time my mind gets comfortable and forgets about my current situation, observing the bay from afar provokes that distinctive emotion of mine, which in turn brings me back to my actual reality (instead of living in that cold place I am from, I now live next to one of the world’s wonders).
