October 3rd marked the second anniversary of the young soldier’s death – 19 y.o. Pvt. Danny Chen had been found dead on his Army watch post in Afghanistan after enduring relentless, racist hazing by his fellow soldiers and superiors. A group consisting of family, friends and community activists gathered on Elizabeth Street, a stretch of which is pending to be renamed in the Chinatown native son’s honor. An incantatory oral history recitation recounting the young man’s life was read in Chinese and English. View the rest of this entry »

Two publications featured my Chinatown 9 Man Volleyball photos this past Sunday: The Washington Post Magazine and German Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

I have to say I really enjoyed shooting sports for a change – that’s the rare occasion I get to say that! But what a great excuse to hang out in the park on a beautiful July weekend to photograph the New York Mini tournament in Seward Park a few weeks back. Seventy-eight US and Canadian East Coast teams gathered for the regional 9 Man competition, before they’ll face off again at the NACIVT North American Chinese Invitational Volleyball Tournament in the coming days in Washington, DC. If you’re in the capital region, check it out over Labor Day weekend – they’ll have Pennsylvania Avenue blocked off for a Chinatown streetball competition! Now, how often does that happen?
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Twenty years ago, on June 6th, 1993, a dilapidated freighter carrying a human cargo of 286 Chinese migrants ran aground off the New York Rockaway peninsula after a hazardous four months sea voyage. It was the largest group of undocumented immigrants ever apprehended while trying to cross into the United States, and the televised rescue effort and widely published images of emaciated men huddled on a NYC beach covered in blue blankets became an enduring symbol of a new kind of immigration crisis, where concerns over border security met with the perception of rampant human smuggling operations run by Asian gangs.

A new body of work in progress, this series of diptychs and portraits sets out to convey the experiences of some of the men who agreed to pay exorbitant amounts of money for a smuggler’s passage to a new life in the United States, while placing those individual experiences into their historical context. The arrival of the Golden Venture occurred just as changes in U.S. immigration policy were imminent, ending an era of relative openness and reform, and heralding the beginning of large scale, indefinite detention for immigration infractions. View the rest of this entry »

Spring is here at last, and taxes are due. What better time to focus on other neglected work, and go through the archive… And clean up the house. I swear it’s about 2/3 of an f-stop brighter in here now that I washed the windows! So, as an ode to the gods of procrastination, I present my Lunar New Year’s series.

A big thank-you and shout-out to the Chinatown Community Young Lions, and the Toms / Lees / Lews, for letting me stick around and shoot during the crazy, pumped up, charged-on-drumming marathon that is New Year’s. I swear the last time I had been they still had fireworks, so that was a looong time ago. View the rest of this entry »

Happy Easter to any Catholic and non-Catholic friends.

Every Easter, the Church of the Transfiguration in Chinatown baptizes new additions to their flock of believers during the Holy Saturday vigil and mass, held in Cantonese, Mandarin and English. View the rest of this entry »

Thrilled to see some of my Sandy aftermath coverage put to great use for Hamilton-Madison House! With props to Blue Pollen for some beautiful design work…

During the second part of my reporting on the blackout and lingering problems affecting residents in the Chinatown/LES/Two Bridges area, Hamilton-Madison House had established a key presence as a neighborhood relief center and organizing hub, and I am happy to see these photos help them tell the story of that difficult time and their efforts in providing for the community.

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“Men should marry and women should wed!” goes an old Shanghai pop tune. Working in Chinatown over the past few months, I had a couple of opportunities to photograph wedded bliss, and the business of what cynics might refer to as the “bridal industrial complex” definitely commands a big presence in the neighborhood. Wedding outfitters and bridal shops abound, offering a fully packaged experience that will encompass everything from catering hall, decorations, DJs, wedding singers and magicians, to hair and make-up styling for the women and rented white tuxes for the groom, plus of course photographers and videographers to document the special day.

But: before you can get married, someone’s gotta spring the question!

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And then, weddings.

I had heard that Thanksgiving is a traditional day to get married in Chinatown. It’s the one day in the American calendar of holidays when pretty much everybody can get the day off. So, in a parallel tradition to most everyone else in America, the holiday has become a time for immigrant families to gather and celebrate young couples. (And young they are – everyone I photographed this past Thanksgiving seemed to be in their early twenties.)

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New year’s resolutions, lunar and otherwise: more sharing / posting of work from this project as I go along. Starting with today’s last minute shopping on Mott Street.

Saturday, Nov. 10, 2012: Chan Yin is a home health aide who looks after 93-year-old Liang Xiushi in the apartment she shares with her husband on the 7th floor of 16 Monroe Street in Knickerbocker Village. Without electricity, she is unable to operate Ms. Liang’s hospital bed to prop her up while feeding her, or to lift her out of bed. Their apartment has been without heat, hot water or cooking gas for almost two weeks now.

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