Asian Americans in Providence, 2022-2023

I was nineteen when I was studying at the Massachusetts College of Design and the coronavirus pandemic began in March 2020. The increase in hate crimes targeting Asian Americans during this time was frightening, especially because people I knew were violently affected and the world was never the same. In the wake of the Stop Asian Hate movement, I dedicated both my studio practice and liberal arts research towards Asian American history and identity. Returning to campus my junior year in the fall of 2022, I studied large format film photography in the spring, and was assigned to create a project over two months. Hoping to strengthen Providence’s Asian American community, I decided to photograph friends and individuals in places, and with people, that gave them a strong sense of home and belonging in a time of fear and uncertainty. It is bittersweet to share my first experience with large format film, as I developed a fondness for working analog and the whispers of a voice within me began to grow. I built upon this project for my senior thesis Two Oceans the following year.