局外人
Outsider
An ongoing project…
artist statement
There are many "China Towns" throughout the country, each one unique in their own way; San Francisco's China Town is special to me. Never being out of the country before, China Town is a portal to a place that I have not yet experienced. The neighborhood continues to pull me in with it's pops of color, busy streets, and the rich culture. This place is everything that I am unfamiliar with, being from the Central Valley. Through my lens I capture what I see and feel, each picture showing a reflection of the life and details of this amazing neighborhood.
More of my thoughts…
For the vast majority of the project, I’ve been going at it the same way each time I decide to take pictures in the neighborhood. I tend to photograph between midday to a few hours before sunset. Photohraphing the same place over and over again does come with its challenges of trying to find new loooks, subjects, and angles. However, this is told to be when the best photographs are made. The way how China Town enphisizes the shadows from the towering buildings and the colors of the store fronts makes the mundane interesting to look at. I focus on capturing the color and how light travels through the streets. Adding in the people of China Town is my biggest focus but also struggle.
In every photographers journey, there is a point where you want to know what one’s self would even want to photograph. Others want to find their signature style or something meaningful to make. I found the best way to go about this was to phootgraph a wide range of things from landscapes, studio portriats, and my personal favorite street photography. Street photography has my top spot because of the art, practice, attention, and skill it takes to make a telling photograph in the chaos of it all. China Town has all of these elements and more.
With this being an ongoing project, my thoughts on it change. When this first started out, I only wanted to focus what’s on the surface. The more I work on this endevour, the more I want to include what makes China Town what it is, and the people make the nightborhood. Finding more personal stories on the streets and behind closed doors, then turning into captivating photohgraphs. This all does come at a complicated challenege with a language barrier. In the end, I hope to make something true, but also beautiful for the China Town of San Francisco.
