Baldwin Lee

Product Information

Sign up to unlock our digital magazines and also receive the latest news, events, offers and partner promotions.

Maybe because of Lee’s choice of antiquated equipment, they sometimes feel like they’re from a much earlier era, like the work of the Farm Security Administration in the Great Depression (Lee studied under FSA luminary Walker Evans). This project would consume Lee-a first-generation Chinese American-for the remainder of that decade, and it would forever transform his perception of his country, its people and himself.I suspect that few are aware of the accomplishments of Baldwin Lee, who, photographing in the South 30 years ago, produced a body of work that is among the most remarkable in American photography of the past half century.

His parents—his father a keen amateur photographer and American war vet—resettled from China to New York City (in an apartment photographed by Jacob Riis!

Chasing photographs one could never have taken evokes echoes of Greek tragedy, but ultimately it served to mould Lee into the kind of photographer who recognised something worth seeing on those backroads of the American South. Over twenty books of his photographs have been published, and his work has been collected and shown in museums throughout the United States and Europe. The centerpiece of BOB DYLAN: MIXING UP THE MEDICINE is a carefully curated selection of over 600 images including never-before-circulated draft lyrics, writings, photographs, drawings and other ephemera from the Dylan archive. He was also the first openly gay man I had encountered and at a time when it was difficult and complicated for someone like him to navigate in the world.

But it is most of all attentiveness to the composure of his subjects that is echoed masterfully in the composition of his shots. I’m photographing during the Reagan administration when he’s there talking about the trickle-down economy. I wanted them to be open ended and subject to the many different interpretations that people brought to them. Arriving almost four decades after Lee began his journey, this publication reveals the artist’s unique commitment to picturing life in America. A new book—the first-ever collection of Lee’s work—and a solo exhibition in New York make the case that he is one of the great overlooked luminaries of American picture-making.Comprising a mere fraction of the estimated 10,000 photographs that Lee, the New York-born son of a Hong Kong emigrant, made on various extended road trips around Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee and Louisiana between 1982 and 1989, they are nevertheless a revelatory record of a time and a place and a people.

This project would consume Lee―a first-generation Chinese American―for the remainder of that decade, and it would forever transform his perception of his country, its people and himself. Change country: -Select- Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Republic Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Islands Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Cook Islands Costa Rica Cyprus Czech Republic Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) Fiji Finland France Gabon Republic Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iraq Ireland Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Republic of Croatia Republic of the Congo Romania Rwanda Saint Helena Saint Kitts-Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea Spain Sri Lanka Suriname Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City State Vietnam Virgin Islands (U. The exhibition presents 30 photographs selected from the book, from an archive containing nearly 10,000 black-and-white negatives from the seven-year period. The photos in Baldwin Lee’s namesake book recently published by Hunters Point Press are sumptuously lyrical explorations of America’s Deep South.

The purpose of my initial trip through the South was to explore possibilities; I wanted to see what the South looked like. The images reflect the artist's eagerness to assimilate back into a home that feels at once foreign and familiar. Lee grew up in New York’s Chinatown, where his father had inherited a thriving business supplying noodles to Chinese restaurants in the city and beyond. Aya is passionate about exploring the natural world and protecting ecosystems and wild landsAll about Photo: Tell us about your first introduction to photography. Indeed, the photographer, a first-generation Chinese American raised in New York, seems an unlikely author of this acutely intuitive depiction of Black southern life given his lack of intimate connection to its cultural, racial and social realities.