In Conversation: Ngoc Minh Ngo (Author/Photographer) & Ivan Shaw (Condé Nast)

Attend:

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Wednesday, Sep 10, 2025
6 – 9 p.m.

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Free with general admission

*General museum admission is FREE for residents of Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties.

Location:

Lecture Hall

5200 Woodward Ave
Detroit, MI 48202
United States

Join Ngoc Minh Ngo (author and photographer) and Ivan Shaw (Corporate Photography Director at Condé Nast) for a conversation about her career and lifelong engagement with flowers and gardens. Ngo’s work has appeared in The World of InteriorsT MagazineVogue, and Architectural Digest, and she is the author of three books: Bringing Nature HomeIn Bloom: Creating and Living with Flowers, and Eden Revisited: A Garden in Northern Morocco, each featuring her own photography.

Ngo will also discuss her latest publication, Roses in the Garden. The inspiration for this series and book came from her father, a former colonel in the Vietnamese army and avid gardener who settled with their family in California in the 1970s. In his final days, Ngo tended his garden in hopes he would see his roses bloom one last time. After his passing, she returned to Brooklyn, New York, where she lives, volunteered at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and began photographing rose cuttings. What started as a personal meditation grew into a series exploring the rose’s cultural and historical significance, culminating in a book celebrating the iconic flower and the renowned gardens where it thrives.

 

Image: Ngoc Minh Ngo, Ninfa Garden, Italy, 2022. Courtesy of the artist. (c) Ngoc Minh Ngo, 2025.

A garden of varying trees

Join Ngoc Minh Ngo (author and photographer) and Ivan Shaw (Corporate Photography Director at Condé Nast) for a conversation about her career and lifelong engagement with flowers and gardens. Ngo’s work has appeared in The World of InteriorsT MagazineVogue, and Architectural Digest, and she is the author of three books: Bringing Nature HomeIn Bloom: Creating and Living with Flowers, and Eden Revisited: A Garden in Northern Morocco, each featuring her own photography.

Ngo will also discuss her latest publication, Roses in the Garden. The inspiration for this series and book came from her father, a former colonel in the Vietnamese army and avid gardener who settled with their family in California in the 1970s. In his final days, Ngo tended his garden in hopes he would see his roses bloom one last time. After his passing, she returned to Brooklyn, New York, where she lives, volunteered at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and began photographing rose cuttings. What started as a personal meditation grew into a series exploring the rose’s cultural and historical significance, culminating in a book celebrating the iconic flower and the renowned gardens where it thrives.

 

Image: Ngoc Minh Ngo, Ninfa Garden, Italy, 2022. Courtesy of the artist. (c) Ngoc Minh Ngo, 2025.