This post was updated May 1 at 8:19 p.m.
Frame by frame, Christian Lee is refocusing the narrative.
From studying finance at UC Irvine to pursuing photography at UCLA, the third-year art student is making strides in his career from behind the camera. Growing up, his family discouraged pursuing the arts as a profession, Lee said. It took an art history professor’s encouragement to take the leap and transfer to UCLA, he added. Now, Lee’s photographs have been published in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Vogue, TIME Magazine and more. He added that he is keeping the intention of highlighting marginalized communities.
“I grew up in a pretty broken home environment, and there wasn’t a lot of stability in my life. … The camera was the only stable thing that I had,” Lee said. “It provided me with an opportunity – not only to understand my own reality but to face it.”
Without seeing accurate Asian and Asian American representation in the media growing up, Lee said he sought to reclaim marginalized stories through photography and film. He added that both mediums are collaborative art forms, reinforcing the pursuit of highlighting marginalized communities.
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Coming from a background in film and screening 10 of his short films at over 40 festivals internationally, Lee said he later began to search for a more individualistic pursuit that didn’t require as much collaboration. He was 12 or 13 years old when he began to lean more toward photography full time, he added. Regardless of the medium, Lee said he always looks for an opportunity to use his camera as a tool for empathy.
“I just started picking up a camera, and I was really making images that I wish I had seen of my family and of my community,” Lee said. “The images that I see of us on screen are not the images that I know of my family, and they’re not the images that I know of my community. So for me, there was this really big gap between the actual industry and then the actual lives that we lived.”
When Lee was still pursuing finance, he said he found himself inspired by the arts faculty at UCLA with whom he would later work. He said the Emmy-winning cinematographer and former UCLA adjunct professor John Simmons acted as one of his earliest and most influential mentors. He added that they have a uniquely collaborative relationship, with Simmons often offering casual advice and taking him to awards ceremonies.
Simmons said Lee possesses a rare, intuitive ability to capture people with respect through framing and composition. Simmons added that he and Lee share the same favorite photographers and inspirations that influence their work, such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Roy DeCarava. Being a photographer comes with a natural inclination to shoot with your heart, which he said he believes Lee has, rather than intellectualizing the process.
“When I finally met Christian, who am I meeting? I’m meeting someone who loves and shares the same reality that I share, … and we both are trying to perpetuate that love and share it with people,” Simmons said. “That’s why I loved him, and that’s why I’m inspired by him, and I still am inspired by him. … I feel like I’m seeing a legacy live on. The legacy is truth for photography.”
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In December, Lee hosted a solo exhibition titled “Until the Day Breaks” at the Broad Art Center at UCLA alongside the Black Bruin Resource Center and ASUCLA. He said he shot it entirely on his iPhone. The most important aspect behind a photograph is the intention, he said, which doesn’t require an expensive camera. He said he focused most on making the photo shoot feel like a collaborative process to maintain a level of authenticity.
“I would approach them, and oftentimes they’d say, ‘Tell me how to pose,’ but my first question was, ‘How do you want to be framed? How do you want to stand? Where do you want to sit?’” Lee said. “Because I’m not going to tell you what to do, because this is a representation of who you are.”
Kristen Joy Emack, a photographer and friend of Lee, said Lee’s enthusiasm for and dedication to the craft encouraged her to act as a mentor for him. She added that he has an unconscious gift for making the photographed subject feel relaxed and curating an authentic image, which doesn’t come easily. Capturing authenticity, highlighting marginalized communities and permeating boundaries are his biggest goals, Lee said.
“Once we reclaim that space and people of color are allowed to reclaim their own narratives, it becomes this radical thing where all of a sudden we are in dialogue with history,” Lee said. “But we’re also able to remember our roots and to embrace that in a way that’s really beautiful.”
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