NEW YORK, May 2, 2024 – “I don’t think that there is a comparable archive of Asian American life to his,” shared Akemi Kochiyama at an Asia Society New York event memorializing photographer Corky Lee and celebrating the launch of Corky Lee’s Asian America: Fifty Years of Photographic Justice. Joining Kochiyama, a Harlem-based community builder and activist, were Tony and Grammy award-winning stage writer David Henry Hwang, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Hua Hsu, Corky Lee’s Asian America co-editor Mae Ngai, and the Asian American Bar Association of New York’s Chris Kwok. 

Known as the “undisputed, official Asian American photographer laureate,” Corky Lee documented Asian American and Pacific Islander communities for fifty years, breaking the stereotype of Asian Americans as docile, passive, and foreign to this country. He passed away in January of 2021. 

“For those of us in New York who were lucky enough to be in his community and work with him, Corky was omnipresent. It seemed that he had been around since the big bang and therefore forever in the Asian American movement,” said Chris Kwok. The panelists noted that over the past 50 years, there were very few Chinatown community events that Corky was not at with a camera in hand. 

The son of an immigrant, Corky was raised in a Chinese laundry in Queens during “a very interesting juncture of history.” According to Mai Ngai, “He was born the tail end of an exclusion era during the Cold War and was a witness to and participant in the changing demographics of Asian America.” 

A contentious objector of the Vietnam War, Corky was a staunch opponent of American foreign aggression and imperialist occupations. “Just one example of is Corky’s dedication to documenting what we would now call bipolar solidarity and what we then talked about as third world solidarity,” noted David Henry Hwang. 

During the police brutality movement, Corky’s photographs documented Asian Americans protesting alongside African Americans, highlighting solidarity across racial lines before the term “intersectionality” existed. After the police beating of Peter Yew, Corky captured photos of thousands marching in Chinatown to demand justice, including the photo below, which was published on the front page of The New York Post. 

Corky loved to show contrast,” said Mae Ngai, referencing a photo Corky took of a Fourth of July parade in Chinatown. “His point was that Asian Americans were Americans and that they participated in and enjoyed American culture, and that didn’t make them any less Asian. And their Asian heritage didn’t make them any less American. He drove that point home photograph after photograph,” said Mae Ngai. 

Breaking down stereotypes was a critical goal of Corky’s work documenting the diversity of life in Asian American communities. He once said that he took 200 photographs a week over 50 years. “There were protests, there were photo-op moments, there were school plays, just the diversity of the things that went into his version of Asian America is so expansive, and I think it is important for the next generation to embrace that expansiveness too. His work is an archive of the Asian America that he wanted mainstream America to see,” said Hua Hsu. 

Watch the full conversation at Asia Society New York here. Learn more about Corky Lee’s Asian America: Fifty Years of Photographic Justice here.