Xenophobic Crime Scenes

The AAPI community has been hit hard in the past year...

First with the fear that COVID-19 instilled against the Asian -- specifically the Chinese -- community, and then the hate crimes towards the Asian elderly.

But the truth is, these events only brought to light the xenophobia we all feel on a daily basis here in the U.S. -- regardless of the COVID-19 pandemic.

If there's anything about the AAPI community is that it's resilient.

We face moments that stun us, traumatize us, make us freeze in place for a moment. Memories that make us shudder and feel disgusted at ourselves, and those who did the harm towards us.

But we move on. Because we are strong.

Some of these "crime scenes" happen on our daily commute, whether that be to work or school. We face them every day. And day by day, the memory fades and the words don't grip us so strongly as they used to. But they're there...

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For my final project in my Documentary Photography class in the spring of 2020, I decided to ask the college-age Asian community of places where they've experienced xenophobia and where they took place within the city of Boston.

Some photos were taken digitally with a Canon 7D Mark II, but a majority were shot on medium format film with a Mamiya 7ii.

It was my first time shooting with film. But it added to my own experience as I grappled with trying to capture the emotions these spaces held to the people I spoke with.

Here's the final product.

See the PDF version on my portfolio here.