We begin 2026 with a six-part series centered around themes of place, movement, and conflict. These issues demand deeper human-centered context, as displacement, political instability, and environmental pressure increasingly define daily life for millions.
In Episode 16 of Exposures, Tracy Dong speaks with Salgu Wissmath about Reassemblage, her photographic study of the Vietnamese-German diaspora in Berlin.
Dong situates the project within her family history: her father, a former South Vietnamese lieutenant, was forced to destroy photographs documenting his military service before fleeing as a boat refugee. The absence of that archive shaped her practice, positioning photography as a means of reconstructing memory.
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Tracy Dong
Tracy Dong is a Berlin-based, lens-based artist whose work is grounded in memory, resistance, and the poetics of diaspora. Drawing from her Southeast Asian heritage and diasporic lived experience, her practice examines how identity, belonging, and cultural memory are shaped and reshaped across borders and generations. With a principal focus on intimate depictions of marginalized subcultures, she proposes subversion and resistance to oppressive systems through deliberate documentation.
Salgu Wissmath
Salgu Wissmath is a nonbinary Korean American photographer whose work bridges documentary, editorial, and conceptual storytelling. Originally from Sacramento, California, they are currently based in San Antonio, Texas. Their current work explores the intersections of mental health, queer identity, and faith using a conceptual documentary approach. Salgu’s editorial work has been published in The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The San Antonio Express-News, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian and NPR amongst others.
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