FONG-CHI LIEN (連豐吉)

EDUCATION

Pasadena City College, Pasadena, California

EXHIBITIONS

2018 "Worlds Beyond Here", Wing Luke Museum, Seattle, WA

2018 "The Ocean of Memories", Taiwan Academy, Los Angeles, CA

2018 TAPA Annual Exhibition, Los Angeles, CA

2017 "Spectrum Gestalt 4", bG Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

2017 TAPA Annual Exhibition, Los Angeles, CA

2017 "Water and Sky", bG Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

2016 TAPA Annual Exhibition, Los Angeles, CA

2016 "Spectrum Gestalt 3", bG Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

2016 "Photo Gestalt", bG Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

2015 TAPA Annual Exhibition, Los Angeles, CA

AWARDS

2005 Gramling Award, The Associated Press

INSTITUTIONAL AND CORPORATE COLLECTIONS

Wing Luke Museum, Seattle, WA

Brodin Design Build, Beverly Hills, CA

I am a photographer from Taiwan. My subject matter is the natural world. My themes center on nature as metaphor.

I was born on an island. Water divides islands from every other place but also connects islands to every other place. The theme of connection, and human migration, is common in my work.

I also do infrared photography. Infrared photography has several interesting attributes. First, it entirely ignores human skin tone, rendering all races the same complexion, since it reads light from the inner layers of the epidermis, rather than from the outer layers where pigment resides. It consequently also eradicates most signs of age, such as wrinkles. It becomes a great equalizing force, eradicating markers of race and age. Second, it renders the world around us in tones that are alien but inviting, strange but beautiful. My works contrast human figures against the flora surrounding us, and renders the oxygen-rich plants a golden shade of yellow. Finally, the works often feature Californian environments rendered in golden yellow. It serves as a metaphor for the way that California, specifically, represented a dream of opportunity to so many Asians, and a reminder of what the Golden State means to people in the U.S. and around the world.