Hi all,
I recently got interviewed for an US-China Today, an online publication based in Los Angeles.
It features some excerpts of my recently published book, Hotel Oakland. Please take a moment to check it out!
Here is the link: http://uschina.usc.edu/w_usci/showarticle.aspx?articleID=18732&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
Here are some photos from the opening reception of my latest exhibit!
For those that know me personally, you know I am obsessed with street food culture. Actually my dream one day is to own a food truck, but it’s just a dream at the moment. On a recent trip back home to my birthplace in Taipei my Mom took me on a journey of nostalgic flavors that we both experienced as a child. This was exciting because I had not visited Taiwan in nearly a decade.
We made our way to Keelung, which is just a half an hour’s drive away northeast from the city center of Taipei. My mom told me “Keelung” is phonetically and roughly translated to “chicken cage” because it’s known for being a very crowded part of the city to live in. As crowded as it may still be, it’s very lively at night (like most of Taipei).
Rather than taking photos of the food I ate, I decided to share some food carts we ate around:
I’ll make sure not to wait so long again until my next visit!
Hotel Oakland had its 100th Anniversary Party today! It was humbling to see familiar faces that I’ve been acquainted with all year long.The upcoming photography exhibit will be on January 24th, 2013.
The Exhibition will be open to the public at 5:30pm. See you there!
Save the date with this link to the event: https://www.facebook.com/events/121880681308050/
It’s been a while since hurricane Sandy struck the East Coast, but my memories of it from this summer have drastically changed.
I hope my family and their communities are recovering in good time.
Last week I had the pleasure of taking portraits of some residents at Hotel Oakland – there was a line out the door!
To learn more about my involvement with these people and about the project, click here.
Here are a couple of my favorite ones:
In Chinese, to be photographed is loosely translated to “ying” 
which also means shadow. It comes from the technical term of exposing onto negative film (remember film?).
It was a very rewarding experience to have these people pose for me. Some of them asked their friends to join in and pose with them. Some had brought different outfits and jewelery to change into for variety. A few invited their family members to pose with them as this opportunity doesn’t come very often.
Some returned with their own digital cameras and asked me to photograph them using my set up! I plan on printing small ones for them to keep for themselves. One woman even joked and asked me if she could use a print for her and her husband’s funeral! That was the greatest compliment. I was merely the platform for them to express and present themselves. All of them expressed their gratitude for photographing them, and asked me when they would be able to see copies. I told every single one of them they were beautiful and handsome, because they truly were.
I plan on doing more interviews in their homes and getting to know more of them.
I can’t wait to see these printed myself!
A huge thank you to my lovely assistant Amanda, once again. Check out her website: http://lymelit.blogspot.com/
Hotel Oakland is a community that provides affordable housing for seniors, most of which are immigrants. I have been asked to do a fine art exhibit for their 100th year anniversary in December later this year, and it has been a very humbling experience so far.
I’ve sat down with some residents and asked them about their life experiences which they have graciously shared with me over the last few months.
Here are some previews of the photographs I have been taking:
I can’t wait to turn it into a book soon!
Happy Year of the Dragon, It’s my year! Hard to believe the last one was 12 years ago, it completely warps my sense of time.
I have a new non-profit project in the works that should be completed later this year. Hotel Oakland is a retirement community in downtown Oakland, and their centennial celebration (100th year) is in December. The residents are predominantly South East Asian, or more specifically, Cantonese. I made it a point to improve my Cantonese while I was back in Hong Kong for Christmas so I could engage with the residents. We’ll see how that turns out, my Mandarin is much, much better.
A friend referred me onto this project and last week I photographed their Chinese New Year Celebrations, which included a very lively Lion Dance.
Here are some pictures!
Yesterday was a fun Sunday. I went over to Chinatown to help out my buddy Tenkai who, along with a bunch of other guys, have invested in a project that I’m sure will pay off in the long run. Picture a space of collaboration within the realms of music, visual arts and custom repairs. Sounds kind of general but we believe it will spawn into infinite creative possibilities. Also the idea of being a part of a record label that is all inclusive of this is pretty inspiring too.
Here’s some pictures of the space in progress:
I plan on documenting its progress from time to time!
It’s been a while, working the daily grind has been too consuming but last Saturday I had the pleasure of donating some time to making the photobooth at the Critical Resistance benefit in Oakland! There was a great lineup, including the inspirational and iconic Angela Davis who gave all of us the encouragement we needed to get through these turbulent yet revolutionary times.
Here are some favorites of the night:
A thousand thank yous to my awesome assistant Amanda to making it happen.
To see the rest of the Photobooth album, click here.
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US-China Today Interview is licensed by Racho under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.