Tseng Kwong Chi

Tseng Kwong Chi, a prolific photographer who passed away of AIDS complications in 1990 at the age of 39, deftly portrays the immigrant feeling of being at a curious cultural remove, even in landscapes made familiar around the world through media exposure. Kwong Chi’s documenting of the Grand Canyon is both dreamy and slyly self-aware. The photographer inserts himself into the scenery dressed in a thrift store Mao suit, not as a wandering tourist in a postcard tableau but rather as a mischievous hidden figure, passing like a spirit through the shadowy, striated vistas. Viewers are challenged to find Kwong Chi’s humanity and sense of humor amid the mythic backgrounds, but once located, his aesthetic imprint impossible to forget.