asianamlitfans | Jun. 16th, 2010

Wing Young Huie is a Chinese American photographer from Minnesota who has made a name for himself photographing diverse communities in the Twin Cities and creating public art projects that connect his photographs to the communities they represent. His other work include an exploration of the Frogtown neighborhood in St. Paul, of Lake Street in Minneapolis, and most recently of University Avenue that runs from downtown St. Paul to downtown Minneapolis. This current exhibit includes photographs in storefronts along the street, a large projection screen that cycles through photographs, and monthly events that include local musicians, writers, and other artists. (See the project's web site: The University Avenue Project.)

For Looking for Asian America, Huie got in his green VW bug with his wife and toured the United States (and parts of Canada) for nine months in 2001 and 2002. The goal of the project was to see the country via the idiosyncratic perspective of Huie himself. The book includes a selection of the images he took, and they range from portraits of Asian Americans he encountered around the country in their everyday surroundings to snapshots of small town American pastimes like demolition derbies and county fairs. The photos sketch out a visual storehouse of America with particular attention to the kinds of people and places Huie found himself gravitating towards.

There is an opening foreword by law professor Frank Wu, author of Yellow: Race in America beyond Black and White, that provides some brief comments on existing visual representations of Asians in American popular culture. The essay by Anita Gonzalez, a co-curator of the exhibit, however, offers the most interesting commentary about the project. Gonzalez explains that the "ethnocentric tour" is one that is meant to make visible how Huie sees this country as a Chinese American but one that questions expectations that he will only take certain kinds of photographs. There are short reflections by Huie himself interspersed throughout the photographs, too, that relate anecdotes connected to the experience of taking photographs. What those reflections reveal is the way Huie sees his work as a photographer not simply as someone who captures images on film but also as someone who creates relationships with the subjects of his photos. The last part of the book excerpts journal entries from Huie's wife, Tara Simpson Huie, in an episodic travelogue. These observations are especially interesting to read in comparison to Huie's recollections of their encounters with the people of America.

I am really quite fascinated by Huie's work and am mulling over how his approach to photographing people and communities is the enactment of an interesting kind of idea of ethical relationships.

Oh, and I know this isn't really "literature," but it's interesting to think about how the project relies on a certain kind of travel narrative. It would be possible to link this project to novels that are about Asian Americans touring the country (perhaps Younghill Kang's East Goes West).