Remembrances of Pipo Nguyen-Duy

I had the privilege of taking Pipo’s photography class during my junior year at Oberlin. I was the kind of art student who always wanted to try a bit of everything, but Pipo encouraged me to engage more deeply with art that actually resonated with me. Now as a musician, I still often remind myself of Pipo’s words and dive deep into every new project until it becomes a part of me.

I fondly remember our art critique days, when we would have a charming little ritual of dressing up for the occasion and presenting our work to our classmates. Pipo was also always so kind to invite his classes every semester to his home for a lovely home-cooked brunch. We took a nice class portrait on a nice day out, went on a little trip for ice cream, and we were fortunate to attend one of his exhibition openings as well. These are memories that I will always cherish.

Since moving back to Thailand, I’ve found that whenever I reconnect with my Oberlin friends around the world, Pipo and the memories of his photography classes often come up in our conversations. And when we share about our meetups on social media, Pipo would celebrate our friendships with us too.

Pipo was an inspiration and mentor to generations of us students and to anyone lucky enough to know him. He will always be remembered for his wise words, his quirkiness, and his gift as a teacher and artist.

— Thanisa D. '18

Pipo taught me as much about life as he did about photography. When my dear friend Emma died, Pipo invited me to find healing in his studio. Pipo taught me how to develop film, grain focus an enlarger, and to always knock before rounding the corner in the darkroom. He also taught me what it meant to take myself seriously as an artist and storyteller. As a mentor and a friend, he inspired me to travel the world, to spend time in monasteries as he had, and to remember that suffering and joy are universally human and that no one person or type of person has any more or less of it. Pipo taught me the importance of respecting our elders, and that as adults, we get to pick these elders. Pipo introduced me to phở, which remains my favorite meal to this day. He taught me how to say 'please' and 'thank you' in Vietnamese, and when I graduated from college he invited me to spend a couple of weeks visiting Saigon and the Mekong Delta with him. I'm going to go have a bowl of phở and remember our friend and teacher. Sending my love to all who are grieving.

— Patrick Gilfether '15

Pipo was my mentor and friend. When I got my first real big job a couple years ago, he was one of the first people I called. We ended up talking for almost two hours as I wandered around New York. He was stoked for me. I was stoked for everything he was doing—he’d just gotten married to Phong and was ebullient. Got dinner with him last year and it was just the same as dinners back in his house with the photo fam. I ache. For him. For us. For his fam.

— Lex Voight '12

Pipo to me is more than a professor. He is a dear friend, a mentor, a role model I look up to dearly. He has a contagious energy that brightens every room he walks into, light up every person he speaks to. He is wise, humble, full of love for life, he is all I want to be when I grow older. We had promised each other to hang out in Vietnam when he retires, and I have been looking forward to that day so much. 
Pipo, please know that you and co Phong will always be in my heart. Forever.

— Loan Lu '15

As a Vietnamese student, I cannot express how grateful I am for having thầy Pipo serving as the advisor for the Vietnamese Student Association at Oberlin. The Viet community at Oberlin has found a home far away from home through the community in which professor Pipo and Ms Phong created, Oberlin Xôi. Oberlin Xôi was opened in my senior year of college (Fall 2023), and Xoi has really made my last year at Oberlin become meaningful. I know I have said this already in my graduation post but I will be saying this again on this special occation, Oberlin Xôi will always have a special place in my heart. May thầy Pipo and Ms Phong rest in peace, and the Viet Community at Oberlin will surely mourn this loss for a really long time…

In our last conversation you were asking me what I was up to post grad (from Oberlin). 2 years later I still have not yet had a clear answer as I am still figuring things out. Sadly I will never get to share more updates on my life after Oberlin with you - you were gone too soon. But the Phở Power spirit will never fade away - I am trying, failing and learning!

— Nguyen Nguyen '24

I was a pretty decent ping pong player, having played a lot in high school. Somehow at Oberlin I found myself across the table from Professor Pipo. I may have scored two points that match, and only because his ball slightly missed my end of the table. He was quick and powerful and by far the best player I ever played against.

— Noah Streib '06

Despite having a camera on me at all times throughout my college experience, I only took one of Pipo's photography classes (though I managed to pull off a private reading in portrait photography with him as well). Both books I printed while developing further as a photographer within Pipo's critical eye remain some of my finest portrait work, pushed and nudged along by him and others in The Lab.

About halfway through the semester of the B&W film photography class, he noted that I could shift to digital if I wanted, reminding me that the best camera is the one you have on you. That stuck with me, and it served as the grounding philosophy of the three semesters I taught the Learning to See: My Camera and Me ExCo (blessed by Pipo, of course). Photography is as much in the eye and the artistic vision as it is in the equipment and materials. Pipo's encouragement of every artist, especially photographers, was a gift to so many generations of Obies.

Pipo was one of the first people I saw walking around town when I moved back to Oberlin this fall, and it was a lovely surprise to see him here, smiling, delighted that we were both once again sharing a place we both love. Wish we'd had one more photo walk in the arb, my friend.

— Ma'ayan Plaut '10

Pipo was brilliant in that he treated all his students as his peers. It was true friendship. True collaboration. He invested in his students as he did his practice. Senior year he was one of our honors thesis advisors. We all went to New York City. Shared stories, laughs, saw art together and talked about the world. He challenged us all to believe in ourselves.

I feel so grateful I got to reconnect with him while visiting campus to lecture two years ago. He was the rock of the art department and a guiding light to us all.

— Isabel Yellin '11

Pipo sucked all the juice out of this life. Every opportunity was one to explore and create: to make a beautiful image, to eat delicious Vietnamese food at Cafe Saigon, to take a field trip to the CMA on a Sunday morning, way too early, to come over during class to watch The Vertical Ray of the Sun, to take Poppy for a walk around the block, to have hugs on a hard day, to concoct perfumes, to joke with him for hours in the darkroom, and to spend time around a truly unique and special human being.

Getting to know Pipo and working alongside him during my four years at Oberlin will always remain some of the most important and life-changing experiences of my life. I have never known someone whose mind challenged me to think harder and more deeply about making art, being part of a community, and growing into a person in this world.

May he live on in all of us, through our art and in the friendships we build wherever we may go. Photo family forever.

— Max Manko '26

From my freshman to senior year I spent every single semester with Pipo. He was my studio art advisor, professor, and mentor in photography and I would not have grown into the person and artist I am without him. Pipo was kind to all of his students as if they were his own kids. He was fashionable and funny and would check in on us alums just to know he still thought of us. During my senior studio visits with him he was always so encouraging on my vision and pushed me to take my ideas farther. A year post grad when I was excepted into my first exhibition Pipo was the first one I told and he responded "Well heckkkkkkk yaaaaaaa and huge congrats to you . A fantastic way to begin the year !! Hope you r staying warm and all is well " in traditional Pipo fashion! He wrote me recommendations for grad school and we met for coffee in Oberlin just last year laughing and talking about art and the world. He is a light in the Oberlin art department and community and I will miss him dearly. For all around him he was inspiring and accepting which is a role I do not believe anyone can replace. I am sending so much love to his family and current Oberlin community.

— Sara Fields '24

Pipo was always a kind, loving and thoughtful professor and human being. His compassion cast a wide spell on campus that positively affected many, including myself. Rest in power Pipo.

— Calder Singer '11

Pipo is on a very short list of educators who have most profoundly impacted my life. I struggled with traditional academia and longed for something to do with my hands. I longed to learn techniques, new and archaic. Pipo was a breath of fresh air. His experimental photography course was foundational to the path my life has taken. He taught me to make magic out of light and a few chemicals. He taught me how to see beauty and wonder in the most rundown and weary settings. Not only that, but he was a friend. I used to babysit for him and spend long hours chatting about art and music and culture and his favorite 80s bands (he was particularly fond of OMD, which I found charming because I was more of a Siouxsie/Cure type). What I love so much about my memory is that I'm just one of many on whose life he made such a profound impact. You will be deeply missed Pipo!

— Seth '04

My senior year at Oberlin felt completely unlike any other year there, and so much of that was due to Pipo. I had arrived back after a Junior year abroad and found myself spending most of the year in the photo domes, learning from Pipo, and completely immersing myself in photography. I have no doubt that I owe my start in media, and magazines in particular, to his influence. He taught me how to SEE images, and to connect with other students who were just as enthusiastic as I was in pursuing this craft. 
In the years since, several times in the course of casual conversation with strangers I have realized that they, or their child, had studied with Pipo and been equally transformed by his teaching and presence. All of his students are bound together by the invisible threads of his mentorship, his kind guidance, and the bonds that developed through him. It is a most wonderful web that I still feel today.

— Chris Morocco '03

Pipo’s intro to photography was a seminal course for me and I have vivid memories of spending time with him during that class. And discussing particular images with him. He exuded a boundless curiosity for his students and was a champion of his students’ creative life. My thoughts are with his family, and those of my classmates and professors who were particularly close with Pipo and now face this tragic loss.

— Anna G '09 

Pipo is one of the few professors whose memory and energy have stuck with me in the many years since I graduated. I was an art major and took two classes with him. His critiques were often challenging but never harsh or personal. I was somewhat awe-struck by his ease, sparkle, and genuinely "cool" persona. Now when he crosses my mind, his memories will take on a new weight. My heart goes out to his closest people and the community.

— Jessa Dickinson '09 

Pipo took some wonderful photos of different campus groups, in about 2003. I have the two he took of groups I was in hanging in my dining room as a great Oberlin memory.

— Christina Russell '06

I only had Pipo for one class, Photo 1, in my junior year. I was taking another art studio at the same time and so my work for Pipo's class wasn't my best. Regardless, he was a caring and careful teacher for us, and built a community within The Lab where we all felt shared ownership over the studio space. He showed us how to create and collaborate, and gave honest, constructive feedback on all our work.

My final semester, Fall of 2010, I booked Fisher Gallery for my art show I was building, for the week typically reserved for Pipo's senior studio class. They ended up showing in the new space downtown, but Pipo found time to visit my show. I remember him looking up at me, halfway through the gallery, and saying, "But this is so good!" It was a stark contrast to the mediocre work I'd presented him during our course together. He planned to bring his senior seminar group to the show later in the week, but unfortunately it was already down by the time they made it. 

In keeping with how Pipo treated his students as peers, he hosted an open house brunch during Commencement Weekend, and my parents and brother remember meeting him as he welcomed us all into his home. We kept in touch for some years, planning to exchange art (a small piece from my show for a photograph of his, maybe of an abandoned greenhouse he often photographed, or one of his self portraits). The exchange never happened, but there is peace in our old messages, exchanged so casually and kindly in the years after I graduated: happy birthdays, congratulations for his Guggenheim, small notes here and there that we remembered each other. 

Ma'ayan Plaut '10 took a photo of me and Pipo at my show opening, and I'll always treasure it, his appraising gaze alongside my giddy surprise at his approval of this undertaking. Miss you so, Pipo. Thanks for absolutely everything.

— Ali Pohanka '11

Pipo was an incredible inspiration to me when I studied under him at Oberlin. He didn't just teach photography...he taught us how to see the world differently, especially how to recognize and appreciate the humanity in us all. I'll never forget the quality with which he engaged - his deeply penetrative inquisitiveness blended with an elegant lightheartedness. Thank you, Pipo, for all the perspectives you helped foster; for the humbleness with which you taught, for the smiles you shared so easily. I'll cherish your memory forever

— Ben Lowenstein '07

During my second year at college, I took photography class by Pipo. At the time, he taught me so much about expressing myself artistically but also encouraged me a lot in pushing through my artistic boundaries. I felt like it is my happiest semester at Oberlin. I had been simply staying at darkroom all the time until midnights because I really enjoyed what he taught us and had a lot of fun printing my photos… Even after the class ended, Pipo and I maintained very good relationship and he had always been so warm-hearted and supportive of me. Recently (summer of 2025), Pipo invited me to visit his house and hang out with poppy, his lovely puppy. It was a really hot day and poppy was laying on the ground; Pipo cooked for me and poppy. There weren’t that many people I know who stayed at Oberlin over the summer, so hanging out with him and poppy really made me feel founded and “at home.”

— Sean Chen '25

As a student at the Oberlin Conservatory, I didn’t have much academic interaction with Professor Pipo. However, his pho was truly delicious. During my freshman year, every Friday I would take the Oberlin ride line to his house to pick up my delicious pho. Sometimes I would even drive there with friends to get some. Professor Pipo was so thoughtful, even telling me the best time to reheat it for optimal flavor! This is truly one of the most cherished memories from our college years. Hearing of his passing fills me with immense sorrow. May he rest in peace, and may he continue to bring delicious pho to everyone in heaven.

— Michael

My name is Val and I graduated w Biology and Visual art majors. Pipo was my art professor in photography and senior art studio. He was funny, inspiring, creative, and a legend that I always share with my friends. He was one of the people who had profound influence on my life in Oberlin, and our friendship continued after my graduation in 2021. In 2023 on a random street in K town Manhattan, we ran into each other again. Last year his had gallery show at CLAMP and it was absolutly intriguing. Me and my friend called him earlier this year, and I was do excited to see his work being exhibited in NYC again. A few weeks ago I went to the college reunion. I should've visited him -- this is going to be one of my biggest regret in life. Rest in peace Pipo, your words will forever live with me. It was a pleasure to meet you.

 — Val Zhang '21

Professor Pipo is someone who truly loves life. Through the lens of his camera, you can see the compassion and kindness he has for everyone. He always has a smile on his face and treats every person with genuine warmth and sincerity. What I love most are the sandwiches and pho he makes. During my freshman and sophomore years, they were something I looked forward to every single weekend. I’m truly grateful for Professor Pipo and all the warmth and kindness he brings into our lives.

— Roger Wu

I feel incredibly heartbroken by the news of Pipo’s passing. Pipo was the professor who introduced me to the world of photography at Oberlin, but what he taught me went far beyond art. He was one of the kindest, most genuine, and supportive people I have ever met. I was incredibly lucky to have him as my major advisor. He had such a wonderful sense of humor and genuinely cared about his students, not just as artists, but as people. He would take students out for meals, welcome them into his home and studio, and share stories about his life, his Vietnamese heritage, his younger days working as a bartender, and how those experiences shaped his artwork. Through those conversations, he was one of the first people who showed me that life could look so different from what society expects of us. That perspective has stayed with me and shaped the way I approach my own life.

One memory I will always cherish is from my graduation. I had jokingly mentioned that, because I had studied away, I never got the chance to take a proper class photograph or have something to remember our class by. Pipo actually listened. He made a T-shirt and gave me a signed photograph, which I still have hanging in my home today. It was such a thoughtful gesture, and so representative of who he was. Every time I look at that photograph, I think about the wonderful years I spent at Oberlin and how fortunate I was to have him as my professor.

The last time I saw Pipo was in 2023. I never imagined that would be the last time. It breaks my heart that someone who brought so much kindness, creativity, and inspiration into the world was taken away in such a sudden and violent way. I wish he had more years to create his beautiful art, enjoy life, and inspire more generations of students, just as he inspired me. He was everything I could have hoped for in an advisor, and so much more. I will always be grateful for the kindness he showed me and the way he changed how I see the world. He will be deeply missed.

— Xiaoyun Gong '21