Corky Lee's Asian America - Fifty Years of Photographic Justice

Informationen zum Autor Corky Lee (1947-2021), a native of Queens, New York, was an activist-photographer who documented Asian American communities and movements for social justice for fifty continuous years. Mae Ngai is Lung Family Professor of Asian American Studies and professor of history at Columbia University. She is the author of several books, most recently The Chinese Question . Chee Wang Ng is a New York-based visual artist and photographer. Klappentext "A posthumous collection of over 200 ... photographs that document the history and cultural impact of the Asian American social justice movement, through the lens of ... photographer Corky Lee--the man who sought to change the world one photograph at a time. Using his camera as his pen and sword, Corky Lee documented Asian American-Pacific Islander communities for fifty continuous years, breaking the stereotype of Asian Americans as docile, passive, and, above all, foreign to this country. [This] is a ... retrospective of his life's work--a selection of the best photographs from his vast collection, including those he personally chose before he passed, from his start in New York's Chinatown to his coverage of diverse Asian American communities across the country"-- Leseprobe Introduction John J. Lee, Chee Wang Ng & Mae Ngai This is the story of a man who endeavored to change the world, one photograph at a time. Who dared to create a record of an upheaval—of thoughts and beliefs that held a people down, of an ignorant nation that prevented the growth of ideas new and better. The truth and a bit of justice. This is the story of our brother and friend, whom the world came to know as Corky Lee. With each photograph he took, Corky aimed to break the stereotype of Asian Americans as docile, passive, and above all, foreign to the United States. He insisted that Asian Americans are Americans, that they were, and are, part of this country, of its history and the ongoing project of its making. As he wrote after 9/11, “Do not let anyone tell you to go back to the country of your ancestors. You belong here. Immigrants built America. It was created for you and me.” Corky Lee documented Asian American–Pacific Islander communities for fifty continuous years, from 1970 to 2020, until we lost him during the pandemic in January 2021, at the age of seventy-three. This book is a retrospective of his life’s work, a selection of the best photographs from his vast collection, starting in New York’s Chinatown and extending to diverse Asian American communities across the country. If Corky aimed to break stereotypes one photograph at a time, his photographs, taken together, show the amazing growth and diversity of Asian peoples in America in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. They offer a view—a long view—of the rise and development of the Asian American movement for civil rights and social justice. Corky Lee was a social photographer—he had little interest in haute art or commercial photography. He sometimes described himself, and was described by others, as a photojournalist. But he was always aware of the limits on photojournalism imposed by editorial gatekeepers and remained true to his first calling as a documentarian of the Asian American community and movement. His intention was to use photography to educate and organize. He avidly photographed protest demonstrations and cultural celebrations as well as children at play, families in their homes, and people at work, be they restaurant kitchen workers or, more atypically, cops and firefighters, pizza and bagel makers, and women taxi drivers, boxers, and pool sharks. Following trends in politics and culture, Corky used the pan-ethnic identifier “Asian American– Pacific Islander” (AAPI) to refer to his subject matter. His photographs track the growth of the AAPI movement for equality and social jus...

Dettagli sul prodotto

• Autori: Hua Hsu, Corky Lee, Mae Ngai, Chee Wang Ng
• Editore: Clarkson Potter
• Lingue: Inglese
• Formato: Copertina rigida
• Pubblicazione: 20.02.2024
• EAN: 9780593580127
• ISBN: 978-0-593-58012-7
• Pagine: 320
• Dimensioni: 238 mm x 263 mm x 33 mm
• Categoria: Scienze sociali, diritto, economia > Scienze politiche > Scienze politiche e cittadinanza attiva