©Binh Danh, Bridalveil Fall, Yosemite National Park, 2025 Daguerreotype Plate: 12 x 20 inches Frame: 19 3/4 x 27 1/4 x 1 1/2 inches

The Center for Photographic Art recently opened the exhibition, Binh Danh, Belonging in the National Parks, that will run through March 22, 2026.  This recent series of daguerreotypes celebrates the United States National Park system during its 110 th anniversary year and also asks the question of who belongs in the National Parks?

The daguerreotype is both mirror and memory. In this series, Binh Danh brings the reflective surface of a 19th-century process into dialogue with what Terry Tempest Williams once called the “open space of democracy.” These images ask us to see ourselves within the land, to recognize that belonging here is not only about access to wilderness, but also about inclusion, presence, and care. As you move before the daguerreotype plates, your reflection joins each scene, reminding us that the Parks are not apart from us, but shared ground where we might meet one another.

The daguerreotype demands a slower gaze, an intimacy with light, surface, and reflection that echoes our fragile relationship to land. The mirrored plate insists the viewer is never absent, always folded into the image, always part of the landscape. By turning to a 19th-century medium to reflect on 21st-century questions of access, identity, and stewardship, this work asks: Who belongs in the National Parks? Who has been excluded? And how might we imagine a more inclusive vision of belonging in these shared spaces?

Danh  also has a beautiful and important monograph, The Enigma of Belonging, published by Radius Books. The book became the first recipient of the Minami Book Grant for Asian American Visual Artists from Radius Books.

©Binh Danh, Book Cover of The Enigma of Belonging, published by Radius

This exhibition is generously sponsored by Simona and Will Martin.

©Binh Danh, Three Brothers, Yosemite National Park, 2024 Daguerreotype Plate: 8 x 10 inches Frame: 13 1/8 x 14 3/4 x 1 1/2 inches

Belonging in the National Parks

The daguerreotype is both mirror and memory. In this series, I bring the reflective surface of a 19th-century process into dialogue with what Terry Tempest Williams once called the “open space of democracy.” These images ask us to see ourselves within the land, to recognize that belonging here is not only about access to wilderness, but also about inclusion, presence, and care. As you move before the plates, your reflection joins each scene, reminding us that the Parks are not apart from us, but shared ground where we might meet one another.

The daguerreotype demands a slower gaze, an intimacy with light, surface, and reflection that echoes our fragile relationship to land. The mirrored plate insists the viewer is never absent, always folded into the image, always part of the landscape.

By turning to a 19th-century medium to reflect on 21st-century questions of access, identity, and stewardship, this work asks: Who belongs in the National Parks? Who has been excluded? And how might we imagine a more inclusive vision of belonging in these shared spaces? – Binh Danh

©Binh Danh, Bajada Wash Trail (#2), Saguaro National Park, 2024 Daguerreotype Plate: 9 x 12 inches Frame: 13.25 x 16 inches

Binh Danh reimagines traditional photographic techniques to explore history, identity, and place. Known for his contemporary daguerreotypes of national parks, his reflective images invite viewers to see themselves within the American landscape. His work resides in major collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, National Gallery of Art, SFMOMA, the de Young, and the Asian Art Museum. In 2023, his book Binh Danh: The Enigma of Belonging became the first recipient of the Minami Book Grant for Asian American Visual Artists from Radius Books. He is also an associate professor of art at San José State University.

Instagram: @binhtdanh

©Binh Danh, Canyonlands National Park, 2016 Daguerreotype Plate: 8 x 10 inches Frame: 13 1/8 x 14 7/8 x 1 1/2 inches

©Binh Danh, El Capitan, Yosemite National Park, 2024 Daguerreotype Plate: 10 x 8 inches Frame: 15 1/8 x 12 13/16 x 1 1/2 inches

©Binh Danh, Fat Man Bomb, Trinity Site, White Sands National Park, 2016 Daguerreotype Plate: 8 x 10 inches Frame: 13 1/8 x 14 7/8 x 1 1/2 inches

©Binh Danh, Gathering at Mather Point, Grand Canyon National Park, 2024 Daguerreotype Plate: 8 x 10 inches Frame: 13 1/8 x 14 7/8 x 1 1/2 inches

Binh Danh, Gathering on the banks of the Merced River, Yosemite National Park, 2025 Daguerreotype Plate: 8 x 10 inches Frame: 13 1/8 x 14 7/8 x 1 1/2 inches

©Binh Danh, Mather Point, Grand Canyon, 2016 Daguerreotype Plate: 8 x 15 inches Frame: 13 1/8 x 19 3/8 x 1 1/2 inches

©Binh Danh, Newspaper Rock Historic Monument, Utah, 2016 Daguerreotype Plate: 8 x 15 inches Frame: 13 5/8 x 20 x 1 13/16 inches

©Binh Danh, Park Ranger Dave Durbin, from the Crater of the Moon series, 2013 Archival pigment print Print: 40 x 30 inches Frame: 40 5/8 x 30 3/4 x 1 5/8 inches

©Binh Danh, Park Ranger Doug Owen, from the Crater of the Moon series, 2013 Archival pigment print Print: 40 x 30 inches Frame: 40 5/8 x 30 3/4 x 1 5/8 inches

©BInh Danh, Park Ranger Lindsay Smith, from the Crater of the Moon series, 2013 Archival pigment print Print: 40 x 30 inches Frame: 40 5/8 x 30 3/4 x 1 5/8 inches