Artist Bio
Christian Lee is a 43rd Annual Telly Award® winning photographer and filmmaker currently pursuing a BA at the University of California, Los Angeles. His work has appeared in TIME Magazine, The New York Times, Vogue, the Los Angeles Times, the World Photography Organization, and elsewhere. Lee’s visual narratives received international recognition from over 50 competitions and publications, including the Sony World Photography Awards, YoungArts, Fujifilm, and the National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. He is an Up Next Photographer at Diversify Photo and a Member of Film Independent and AAJA whose moving and still images explore themes of cultural assimilation, domesticity, and intergenerational trauma within immigrant communities. https://www.christianalee.com/
Kinship
Created over the course of five years, "Kinship" follows Christian Lee’s close relatives as they attempt to navigate personal loss, intergenerational trauma, and the financial and emotional challenges presented by the global pandemic. Beginning with the birth of the photographer’s infant cousin and ending with the passing of his terminally-ill uncle, the TIME Magazine published project presents a moving portrayal of a Korean American family that spans several generations and years. Lee incorporates intimate black and white portraiture and documentary images to challenge preconceived notions of domestic life within the Asian diaspora while thoughtfully considering the role of silence in immigrant families.
Growing up in a traditional East Asian and Native Hawaiian immigrant family made committing to my art an incredibly difficult task. The conservative home environment that never seemed conducive to creativity was an inspiration for me to continue telling stories. I introduced the camera into shared domestic spaces, and relatives initially reacted with deep confusion. As I began developing “Kinship” into a larger project, I realized how inaccessible this device was to diasporic communities and that the reason loved ones never considered art a “viable” career was because they did not understand it. Their personal circumstances and the systemic barriers pitted against them did not allow for the opportunity to understand it. The quote from Hua Hsu’s Stay True, which appears at the beginning of “Kinship” reads, “The first generation thinks about survival; the ones that follow tell the stories.” It was a harsh reality for me to stomach, and I wanted to lovingly dialogue with that notion by facilitating collaborative creative relationships with my family. What if the first generation could also consider their own stories? I posed inquiries, knowing that I felt strongly about the democratization of visual storytelling because I understand how challenging it is to create work as a self-taught artist of color.
Hsu was right. However, “Kinship” existed as the perfect chance for my family to perceive the power of art in ways that would render them seen both to the world and to themselves. https://www.christianalee.com/kinship