By John Lee

Just about four years ago, at the height of COVID, we lost photographer and activist Corky Lee. His work is the subject of a recent book, “Corky Lee’s Asian America: Fifty Years of Photographic Justice.”

We present an appreciation by his brother, John Lee:

My brother Corky Lee was a self-taught photojournalist who chronicled the Asian communities of America. As the eldest of four sons born to Chinese immigrant parents, he grew up and worked in the family laundry business, and was the first in the family to graduate college.

Starting in the 1970s, Corky chose a camera as his tool for social change. Corky described his camera as a “sword against injustice” and quickly began to document, highlight, and advocate for the Asian American communities.

He called himself the undisputed, unofficial Asian American photographer laureate. His hope: “After people see my photographs, they’ll basically learn something about what it is to be Asian American,” he once said. “It’s an attempt to educate people one photograph at a time.”

His passion for “photographic justice” was sparked in his teens when he saw the iconic 1869 photograph of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad that excluded Chinese workers.

To read the entire article and to watch the video: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/corky-lee-photographic-justice/

“Photos reprinted with permission from Corky Lee’s Asian America: Fifty Years of Photographic Justice. Copyright © 2024 by the Estate of Corky Lee, Mae Ngai, and Chee Wang Ng. Text copyright © 2024 by Mae Ngai unless otherwise noted. Photographs copyright © 2024 by the Estate of Corky Lee unless otherwise noted. Published by Clarkson Potter, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.”