Welcome to Hong Kong

I have long felt communion with Asian culture, but it was a brief visit to Hong Kong in 1992 that captured my heart, and upon my return all I thought about was going back.

About a year later, I decided to make my photos into Gum Bichromate prints and I used them to searched for funding for four years. I lectured, exhibited and filled out countless grant applications. I almost gave up but then two women dared to take a chance on me: Ann Schwab, an accomplished artist and friend from Hawaii; and Holly Schwarz-Lawton, the Executive Director of the Urban Cultural Park, Saratoga Springs, New York, who became my longtime friend.

With their support and funding, I gave this project everything that was inside of me. I returned to Hong Kong, lived with a Chinese family for three months and photographed a remarkable place and people. I attempted to turn my experiences into a comprehensive yet intimate portrait of the lives and faces of a city in transition. The resulting exhibition showed in New York and Hawaii.

Below are two flyers from my gum print exhibits prior to 1997, and
publicity and photos from the Saratoga Springs and Honolulu shows.

With Holly's expertise and grants from Saratoga County Program for Arts Funding and the New York Foundation of the Arts, the first exhibition of Hong Kong--A Window Ajar was displayed at the Urban Cultural Park in 1997.

In addition to the B&W/Gum Print exhibition, I gave two slide/lecture presentations (no PowerPoint then). During my trip, I shot 80 rolls of color slide film and filled several notebooks with daily writings. I wanted to present a different view--a color view--of the project, plus I wanted people to understand what I was feeling, so I read from my diaries. Here's the first entry I wrote:

2/27/97 At JFK International airport, a 30 hour trip ahead. I’m already beginning to feel like a minority. Faces are brown and tan and red and yellow. Other languages are being spoken. I am all alone with families all around me. I feel some fears trying to surface. I’m reminded of a saying: The closer one gets to ones dreams; the closer one gets to ones fears. It has been such a long road that I have traveled to get here, and now it is time to do what I have dreamed of. I’m afraid that I will not live up to my expectations and I’m afraid that I will not find an audience for my vision.

Ann and Bud made my dream come true with their generous financial gift, but perhaps more importantly, their belief in my abilities gave me the confidence to realize my project, to excel in my work and to expand myself as an artist and as a human being.

The second exhibition of Hong Kong--A Window Ajar was displayed at Ramsay Galleries in Chinatown, Honolulu, HI, 1997. When I lived in Hawaii I regularly attended shows at the gallery and I wondered if I'd ever get the opportunity to be one of the featured artists, wondered if I'd ever have work that would fit-in with island culture.

I was honored to bring my show to this truly original and unique space--the perfect space for this artwork.

In 1998, I was given another grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts through the Rensselaer County Council for the Arts for travel expenses to Maine to attended a Photographic Book Publishing Workshop. From this experience, I developed a book design, honed my focus, learned how to edit and sequence my photos and how to make a "dummy" book for publisher's consideration. Try as I could, I never got it published.

This is the cover of the handmade book I made in 1999 entitled: A Gwaipoh in Hong Kong. It is 9x10" made with heavy weight, acid-free paper, has 120 pages with 85 B&W photos (8x6") that I printed in my darkroom and unlike the "dummy" booklets I made for publishers, this one is a finished product.

I made two of these books: one for myself and one for Ann and Bud.

Bud passed away in 2003 and Ann in 2012. I'm grateful for the years I got to be a part of their lives. They were loving, compassion people, and they gave me more than I can ever express. Thank you my friends. Rest in peace.