When we do documentary photography, we establish a permanent bond with those we photograph and the community in which we work.
From 1981 to 1984 I worked on a photography project in New York Chinatown as part of the New York Chinatown History Project. An older, primarily male community was being replaced by a rapidly expanding new influx of immigration of young families.
When I began this project, I was an outsider. As a documentary photographer my role was to keep my eyes open, learn as much as I could, make connections, and follow wherever they took me. Only with this foundation of connection could I move forward and communicate anything meaningful.
The connections that I made in the early 1980s have endured, compelling my return to these photographs, and have been enriched by recent oral history interviews with those I photographed, their children and relatives.