safety deposit box

chineseinamerica:

In anticipation of the upcoming MOCA exhibition America through a Chinese Lens (opening April 11 – August 27, 2012), a survey of photographs depicting American life as shot by Chinese and Chinese American artists, documentary photographers and non-professionals, we are pleased to launch MOCA’s tumblr page, Scrapbook MOCA, to expand on the show’s themes and engage with our online audiences.
During the run of the show, new media artist and design strategist An Xiao will be shooting and posting photographs regularly as she travels throughout the west and southwest, offering a live visual essay about her America on our tumblr page. Inspired by that project, we’ve surveyed our staff for reflections on their America as seen through a family photograph. Here’s the another photo in the series My America from Ryan Wong, Assistant Curator:
This photo was taken in 1990 at a friend’s party in a public park in Los Angeles.
Some combination of Speedy Gonzales, the Autry Museum in Los Angeles, the Marlboro man on Sunset Boulevard, and family trips to the deserts of the Southwest forged a cowboy in toddler me. Regional culture was (and still is) a central part of my identity. I wore a bolo tie before a cloth tie, cowboy hat before a baseball cap, and owned a whole range of bandanas.
My parents tried to keep me away from guns and violent toys. My grandmother, oblivious to this rule, gave me two Old West-style revolvers with functioning hammers and faux-ivory grip for Christmas when I was around four. Naturally they became my favorite toys – after that it was High Noon all the time.
P.S. Those recklessly stylish overalls carried over into my next all-American fascination: railroad conductor.

(not to keep reblogging my work posts, but i couldn’t resist! how cute is my baby coworker! those overalls!)

In anticipation of the upcoming MOCA exhibition America through a Chinese Lens (opening April 11 – August 27, 2012), a survey of photographs depicting American life as shot by Chinese and Chinese American artists, documentary photographers and non-professionals, we are pleased to launch MOCA’s tumblr page, Scrapbook MOCA, to expand on the show’s themes and engage with our online audiences.

During the run of the show, new media artist and design strategist An Xiao will be shooting and posting photographs regularly as she travels throughout the west and southwest, offering a live visual essay about her America on our tumblr page. Inspired by that project, we’ve surveyed our staff for reflections on their America as seen through a family photograph. Here’s the another photo in the series My America from Ryan Wong, Assistant Curator:

This photo was taken in 1990 at a friend’s party in a public park in Los Angeles.

Some combination of Speedy Gonzales, the Autry Museum in Los Angeles, the Marlboro man on Sunset Boulevard, and family trips to the deserts of the Southwest forged a cowboy in toddler me. Regional culture was (and still is) a central part of my identity. I wore a bolo tie before a cloth tie, cowboy hat before a baseball cap, and owned a whole range of bandanas.

My parents tried to keep me away from guns and violent toys. My grandmother, oblivious to this rule, gave me two Old West-style revolvers with functioning hammers and faux-ivory grip for Christmas when I was around four. Naturally they became my favorite toys – after that it was High Noon all the time.

P.S. Those recklessly stylish overalls carried over into my next all-American fascination: railroad conductor.

(not to keep reblogging my work posts, but i couldn’t resist! how cute is my baby coworker! those overalls!)