Ching Ming Cheung

I've spent my life between worlds. I am originally from Hong Kong, a daughter of China by blood, born and raised in an island outpost forever caught between the East and the West. During my formative years, I began taking pictures as a way to understand the cross-cultural nature of life in Hong Kong. In "Back Stage" a solo exhibit I mounted at Hong Kong City Hall in 1977, I explore how the family lives of traditional Chinese opera artists played out backstage and onstage. In the 1980s I migrated to United States and began to experience the multicultural currents in New York City, documenting life in Chinatown as well as the vibrant arts scene in downtown Manhattan. In the 1990s and early 2000s, I photographed many jazz recording sessions, focusing on the behind-the-scenes energy of the musicians both inside and outside the studio. In an ongoing "Commute" series I began in 2006, while traveling between cities by bus or train, I've explored the view through my window of America in motion. And since 2022, as a visiting scholar with the Asian/Pacific/American/Institute at NYU, I have started to organise and digitise my photo archive, spanning 50 years: "A Chronology of A Life in Photographs"