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 »
Browse Berlin Fotofestival showcases multimedia selections from around the world
My video piece on surrogacy in India is presented as part of Browse Berlin Fotofestival‘s multimedia line-up in Berlin this month.
Tearsheets: Cindy Gallop for Libertine Magazine (UK)
New cross-platform work: I created these portraits and a short video of Cindy Gallop – ad agency maven, Ted Talk phenomenon, web entrepreneur and 21st century sexual etiquette revolutionary – for Libertine, a brand new British magazine for women that aims to “celebrate inner life over outer appearance.” I’ll have to take their word for it, since the content is only available in print, but “columns on swearing, also manners, a powerful essay on self respect by the great Joan Didion, some stunning luxury photography, fiction, fountain pens, business, biohacking and 3D printed dolls” sounds potentially promising. 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 »
Tearsheets: New Orleans Magazine
For New Orleans Magazine‘s March issue, portraits to accompany a Q&A session with playwright John Patrick Shanley, author of the amazing Doubt, a Parable.
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.
Shabbos in the city that never sleeps
I produced this series of images for Flemish-language newspaper De Morgen’s weekly magazine, to accompany a story by journalist Margot Vanderstraeten who had spent time with young Modern Orthodox Jewish families from Antwerp who were now living in New York City. The only hitch: None of the subjects she interviewed wanted to be photographed.
Chinatown Valentine – pt. 1
“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!
Chinatown Valentine – pt. 2
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.)
