Corky Lee

Corky Lee, self-taught photographer, has been documenting the vibrant and fast-emerging Asian and Pacific American community for over 30 years. Known as the "undisputed unofficial Asian American Photographer Laureate," the ubiquitous Corky has covered the day to day lives of Asian Pacific Americans as well as historical moments in American history.

Mr. Lee was set on his photojournalistic course in junior high school by a famous photograph taken at Promontory Point, Utah, in 1869. The picture commemorated the completion of the transcontinental railroad and showed workers posing with two trains, one from the Central Pacific and one from the Union Pacific. But something was wrong with this picture. No Chinese workers. Since Mr. Lee first laid eyes on that photograph, he has devoted himself to making Asian Pacific Americans visible.

In Memoriam Corky Lee (1947-2021)

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The QView #92 (February 9, 2021) A friend of mine, Corky Lee, a Queens College alumnus, passed away last month from COVID-19. A “Queens kid,” Corky was famous as a photographer who used images to advance activism. He noticed how Asian Americans were almost always left out of the picture, literally. As a child of … Read more

Photography as Primary & Secondary Data

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This talk is part of a new graduate-level course, Critical Asian American Issues and Actionable Solutions, taught by AAARI’s first CUNY Thomas Tam Visiting Professor, Dr. Paul Ong from UCLA, at the CUNY Graduate Center. For this talk, Corky Lee will exhibit twenty-four of his photographs and discuss their cultural and historical significance to New York City’s Asian American community.

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Thirty Years of Asia America: Images by Corky Lee

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For thirty years, Corky Lee has used his camera to ensure that the faces of Asian Pacific Americans and their experiences be included in American history. His mission has been to document the incredibly diverse Asian American communities ignored by mainstream media. In an interview in AsianWeek Corky commented: “I’d like to think that every … Read more