Archive for the ‘Personal Projects’ Category
Age Is Not A Condom bus shelter ad campaign
Earlier this year, the Graying of AIDS project worked closely with New York City-based AIDS research, education, and advocacy organization ACRIA to create an intimate portrait series of older adults – alone and with “partners” – for their Age is Not a Condom HIV/AIDS and aging awareness campaign.
Memory, and death, in Chinatown
The week leading up to Memorial Day weekend saw a series of politically symbolic memorials and vigils in the neighborhood, beginning with the unveiling of Private Danny Chen Way, which had been a couple of years in the making, followed by an impromptu vigil for a local grandfather, Wen Hui Ruan, who had been viciously attacked and beaten on an East Village street. And finally, two days of memorials for Sister Ping honored the life of a woman who was hailed as saintly community benefactor by her Fujianese compatriots, while wanted, and eventually sentenced, as a ruthless “snakehead” and profiteer by the authorities.
Su Zhen Chen, Private Danny Chen’s mother, and Yan Tao Chen, his father, with the ceremonial street sign honoring their son.
For Valentines Day: Real Age = Real Sexy
Meet Anna and Paul, and Ty and David, the first two couples who volunteered to participate in ACRIA‘s upcoming “Age is Not a Condom” campaign, produced in collaboration with The Graying of AIDS. We’re still looking for couples who might like to participate in this campaign, to be photographed throughout February.
If you or someone you know might be interested, we are looking for 60-something New Yorkers who are ready to show a little skin for a good cause! More details here: http://bit.ly/1fZvwnX. To apply, write us at acriacasting@gmail.com.
Tearsheets: Businessweek for World AIDS Day
Big thanks to Donna Cohen and the multimedia team at Businessweek for making our Graying Pandemic series look fantastic!
View the rest of this entry »
A vigil for Private Danny Chen, year two
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 »
The Graying of AIDS is a 2013 Getty Creative Grants Exceptional Finalist
The Graying Pandemic formal portrait series on Aging with HIV was selected as one of two projects chosen for the short list of this year’s Getty Creative Grants. Congrats to our co-exceptionals, and to the winners – all around deserving and inspiring projects!
Remembering the Golden Venture
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 »
Year of the Snake: Chinatown Community Young Lions
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 »
Easter Baptism
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 »
Sandy aftermath – Hamilton-Madison House publication
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.