“I heighten the irony of the icons and symbols of western popular culture… all of which are worshipped, exploited and exported through the media of television, Hollywood movies and Madison Avenue magazines.”
- Name: Tseng Kwong Chi, formerly known as Joseph Tseng
- Born: September 6, 1950
- Died: March 10, 1990
- From: Born in Hong Kong; Lived in Vancouver, Canada
- Pronouns: He/him
- Contribution/Impact: Tseng was an American Photographer born in Hong kong, in East village in the 1980’s. His photos were taken during the peak of the AIDS crisis. His photos in front of American landscapes, a part of the ‘expeditionary series’, explore ideas of self-perception and self-assigned identities, an important statement for LGBTQ at the time, and therefore closely entangle with the AIDS crisis and his own identities.
- Occupation: Photographer, Artist
- Known For: East Meets West (1979-1987)
- Awards: Has art exhibits in the Guggenheim in NY, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and is in the Asian American Arts Centres’ digital archives
- Interesting Facts: He had a close relationship with artists like Andy Warhol, and other artists like Keith Haring.
Tseng Kwong Chi was an Asian American photographer who used his photos to explore self identity, self-imposed identities, and the idea of being a foreigner in a country. His most famous works is the “East Meets West” series, also known as the ‘Expeditionary series,’ in which he took photos of himself with famous American landmarks and landscapes. He was gay and HIV positive, but didn’t agree with these labels. He lived in New York with his companion Robert Kristoffer, who outlived him when he passed of AIDS-related complications in 1990.
Handout
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