Chinatown NYC – a photographic documentary (Working Title only)
This work in progress seeks to portray Chinatown both real and imagined, visualizing its past and present through the prism of concepts of identity as much as through observed daily life, street photography and portraiture.
The categories listed below are necessarily in flux and contain overlaps; they are by no means complete and do not suggest a permanent organizing principle of this work. Notes and themes are sketches only, containing preliminary ideas and first successful images that form the foundation of a growing body of work.
In the end, while themes are important, this will be about creating interesting images that are open to interpretation, containing layers of meaning, portraying a neighborhood and community in flux.
Little Fuzhou abuts Manhattan's traditional Cantonese Chinatown at the intersection of the Bowery & Doyers Street.
Annual Eldridge Street Synagogue "Egg Rolls and Egg Creams" block party on the Lower East Side.
• Changes will be explored by documenting a past still present in Manhattan’s original Chinatown by ways of cultural institutions and individual elders, and by documenting lasting transformation such as the shift away from manufacturing jobs after 9/11 and the neighborhood’s quickly gentrifying housing market.
Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association fashion gala.
Double Ten celebration of the 101st anniversary of the independence of the Republic of China.
Sun Yat-sen portrait, Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association.
• Generations (Elders) will document the quickly vanishing past, but also the handing down of traditions to a new generation of American-born children through mentoring and the arts.
Funeral directors on Mulberry Street.
Playing chess in Columbus Park.
Friday night on Doyers Street. Encroaching gentrification has brought several trendy new bars to the area.
• Generations (Youth) will look at how each generation reframes and rediscovers what it means to be American.
AKF Dance Group performers.
AKF Dance Group from Flushing, Queens.
Jack Hsu of the erhu fronted progressive rock band Hsu-nami performs at Echo Music Fest.
Backstage at a fashion show.
Handball court, Flushing, Queens.
• Mythology will explore the Chinatown of ritual and imagination – the community’s spiritual side, but also orientalist imagery rehashed by a European fashion magazine and 1930s glamour reclaimed and updated by a contemporary group of Chinese-American burlesque artists.
Last minute shopping for lunar new year's decorations on Mott Street.
Lion Dance on Mott Street in honor of the year of the snake.
Lion Dance in honor of the lunar new year, ringing in the year of the snake.
Procession of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, Church of the Transfiguration.
Pell Street model shoot for a Spanish fashion magazine.
Calamity Chang and Shien Lee performing at Les Fleurs de Shanghai burlesque revue.
• Body Politics – gender- and sexual identity is among the cornerstones of both our most private and performative selves. Within a recent immigrant community where breaking the norm and standing out can be deemed risky und undesirable, it is often one of the aspects of identity that is controlled most tightly. At the same time, American mainstream culture’s persistent stereotyping of Asians and Asian-Americans within the dichotomy of either “asexual” or “submissive object of desire” adds layers of loaded associations for a generation of young people to muddle through, work against or reclaim…
Jing, center, Filipina with Chinese-Portuguese roots, with her TransPinay group during Gay Pride March.
"Queer Asian Bombshell." Pride March 2012.
Backstage, Miss Angel Model Contest.
Wedding dress rehearsal, Miss Angel Model Contest.
• Milestones will include weddings and funerals, baptisms and graduations, with a focus on the aspirational identities, dreams and religious beliefs people forge for themselves among the daily hustle of urban life.
LaGuardia High School for the Arts prom outing.
Thanksgiving is a traditional day for couples from around the country to get married in New York's Chinatown.
Outside an East Broadway beauty parlor, Thanksgiving Day.
East Broadway wedding, Thanksgiving Day.
Emma Lazarus High School graduates its first full senior class of recent immigrant English Language Learners.
Procession of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, Church of the Transfiguration.
• Politics and Participation will document civic engagement, from current elected officials to NYC comptroller John Liu running for Mayor, and the role of Chinese-Americans in the police and military forces, including the legacy of Private Danny Chen’s death.
Asian-American community and human rights organizers gather to watch the final presidential debate of the 2012 election.
Campaigning for Grace Meng for Congress during NYC's primary elections, Flushing, Queens.
Grace Meng answers questions after a town hall meeting during the NY primaries. Flushing, Queens.
Veteran's Day Parade. Francis Lewis High School in Queens has the largest JROTC program in the nation.
Vigil against hazing and racism in the armed forces, commemorating Private Danny Chen on the first anniversary of his death.
• Chinatown as Island covered the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and the ensuing blackout – the loss of power as well as the lack of communication and information in a linguistically isolated community.
Lower Manhattan blackout the day after Hurricane Sandy, with Chinatown at right.
Eight year old Justin and his father have lived without electricity for 12 days.
Waiting in line for FEMA food and water rations.
Charging cell phones at a community activist group's offices.
Shuttered restaurant in the wake of hurricane Sandy.
Stranded on the 42rd floor of Confucius Plaza.
Volunteers deliver military rations and water.
Chinatown lies in darkness for four days after Hurricane Sandy.
to be continued…