Now and Then

Now and Then explores identity as a fluid, ever-evolving process shaped by memory, history, and reinvention through archival family photos and contemporary photos.

Now and Then is a project initiated in 2019 that explores the intersections of personal and cultural history, focusing on my family’s history in Tengchong China, and the evolving diverse identities of the Asian diaspora community in Los Angeles. Through the juxtaposition of these two worlds, the project reflects on the tension between preserving heritage and embracing self-expression in a new cultural landscape. Through layering archival family photographs with contemporary photos, the project creates a conversation between past and present.

The process of becoming often feels nostalgic and almost mythic, reconstructed from fragments of heritage, personal experience, and the stories we inherit. My great-grandfather, a Kuomintang general, liberated Tengchong from Japanese occupation in WWII, a pivotal act that profoundly shaped my family’s history. After the war, his immigration to America with his second family left my family—the first family—behind to endure exile in Xinjiang before rebuilding their lives in Guangzhou. These ruptures, sacrifices, and reinventions echo in the lives of the Asian communities I documented in Los Angeles—individuals navigating traditions while forging new paths.

Through blending archival images with contemporary photographs from Tengchong and LA, Now and Then reflects the ongoing process of becoming. It suggests that identity is fluid, dynamic, always searching for a sense of belonging. It’s found in moments of connection, in the spaces where history and possibility meet. This project is about that search—asking what it means to remember where we come from while embracing the complexities of who we are becoming.