Images courtesy of the artists |
Two young Korean-American photographers present a series of images, a poignant portrait of a community and its habitants from the areas considered to be “Koreatown”—one in Los Angeles, one in New York. Emanuel Hahn and Janice Chung document the lives and stories in two of the most diverse neighborhoods in America, as the communities and neighborhoods themselves continue to evolve and change. It is a celebration of the Korean immigrants and their experiences, and the artists ask the viewer to reconsider the common notions of what it means to be from “here.”
Emanuel Hahn‘s Koreatown Dreaming series was born out of a sense of urgency to document the stories of Koreatown LA during the Covid-19 pandemic and creeping gentrification. Although Koreatown is increasingly a popular destination for tourists and transplants, many small businesses in Koreatown serving the local population are closing, and long-time establishments and mom-and-pop stores have disappeared without leaving a record of their history and contributions to the city of Los Angeles. Documenting the lives and stories of those who are still surviving, his photo series offers a compelling insight into this entrepreneurial immigrant group.
In her HAN IN TOWN series, Janice Chung captures what was once the epicenter of Koreatown in New York City—Flushing, Queens—and focuses on the various businesses that have continued to serve the Korean-American community through all of the neighborhood’s transformations. By spotlighting these businesses, Chung investigates communal nostalgia for a Flushing of the past. Her other series Where Are You? uncovers a vulnerable search for identity and belonging within the intimate spaces of family. Documented over the course of five years, photographs taken in her hometown of Queens weave together the places of Chung’s childhood. Viewers are asked to take a second glance and remain just a while longer in the generational gaps and cultural tensions felt by Korean Americans.
Artist Talk: Emanuel Hahn |
Artist Talk: Janice Chung |
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ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Emanuel Hahn is a Los Angeles-based photographer and director. As a Korean Third Culture Kid growing up in Singapore and Cambodia, he developed an interest in storytelling around topics of identity, diasporic experiences and the question of what it means “to belong”. His deep observational and listening abilities have led him to tell the stories of the coffee farmers in Colombia, Chinese grocery store owners in the Mississippi Delta, the Korean Uzbeks in Brooklyn, and most recently the Koreatown community in Los Angeles through his photo book Koreatown Dreaming.
Born and raised in Queens, New York City, Janice Chung is a Korean American photographer whose work explores themes of nostalgia, home, and the hyphenated experience. Often utilizing the natural elements in her environment, Chung examines the nuanced complexities of Korean American identity within the diasporic struggle and immigrant narrative. Chung’s work has been featured in publications such as Vogue, New York Magazine’s The Cut, Hyperallergic, Damn Magazine, and Booooooom.
