4:15-6:00pm, Thurs., Nov. 30, 2017

Fisher Conference Center
Francis C. Arrillaga Alumni Center
326 Galvez Street, Stanford, CA, 94305

This lecture will explore the remarkable body of photographs produced by May’s Photo Studio, the first Chinese-run photography studio in San Francisco’s Chinatown. From its opening in 1923 until the mid-1960s, wife-and-husband Isabella May Lee and Leo Chan Lee documented weddings, special events, Cantonese opera productions, and even produced erotic photographs for Chinese immigrants during the height of the Chinese Exclusion Act. The resulting archive, currently housed in Stanford Special Collections, offers an unprecedented snapshot of daily life in San Francisco Chinatown from the perspective of its inhabitants, akin to James Van Der Zee’s famed photographs of Harlem.

Following the lecture, there will be a reception and viewing of a pop-up exhibition featuring a selection of images from the May's Photo Studio on loan from Stanford’s Special Collections archive [image featured above courtesy of Stanford Special Collections].

Marci Kwon specializes in the art and culture of the United States. Her research and teaching interests include the intersection of fine art and vernacular practice, theories of modernism, cultural exchange between Asia and the Americas, "folk" and "self-taught" art, and issues of race and objecthood. Kwon teaches courses on Asian-American Art, 1850-Present and Migration and Diaspora in American Art.

Registration required. Free and open to the public.