Synopsis
San Francisco based photographer Dong Lin s book, One American Reality (Format: 8 ¾ x 11 ½, 158 pp, 71 black and white duotone images), with an introduction by Sinologist/UC Berkeley journalism school dean Orville Schell, is a series of searing portraits of hookers, drug dealers, transsexuals and the homeless, from the Bay Area to New York City. This is an un-judgmental look at the underbelly of the American dream and how it has failed the subjects of Dong Lin s taut and compelling photographic scrutiny.
Review
Beauty in a Gritty Urban Landscape REVIEWED BY, PATRICIA HOLT San Francisco Chronicle April 27, 1997 04:00 AM Copyright San Francisco Chronicle. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Sunday, April 27, 1997 In San Francisco a homeless man is so dwarfed by concrete, steel and glass at the start of Battery Street that he all but disappears. On Clement, a police officer kicks the heel of a man who has keeled over on the sidewalk. In the Tenderloin, a driver glances over the merchandise as a prostitute ignores him. Elsewhere a man holding out a McDonald's cup stands next to a poster for the California Lottery. In stunning black-and-white photos that both alarm and inspire, Dong Lin, a staff photographer for the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, documents America's not-so-hidden underclass in the wealth and ruins of the Bay Area and New York City. His book, ``One American Reality,'' implies that ``even in the seemingly unjust and ugly there is also a kind of ineffable beauty -- a beauty that is simply part of the human dilemma,'' writes Orville Schell, dean of the graduate school of journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, in the introduction. Linn's only fault seems to be a penchant for the obvious -- the weary man begging for change under a giant clock; homeless people sleeping on park benches a page away from affluent women sunning themselves on a park lawn. Photos like these come to mind when Schell writes that Lin, ''coming from a `socialist country' . . . might easily have approached these castaways with a certain ideological or didactic bias. ''After all, they do not make a pretty picture, and are certainly damning evidence of the failure of capitalism to deliver for everyone. Instead, he approaches his subjects with a certain neutrality.'' But not always. When Lin shows two men in business suits looking blandly at a homeless man sleeping in a doorway, and pass him by, a message about victims and the system is unmistakably transmitted. The book has historic importance. While American photographers have captured the people and landscapes of China since the Opium Wars of the last century, Schell explains, Lin stands alone in creating ''something truly unique: a tradition of Chinese beginning to look Westward with the same kind of fascinated but critical eye.'' Thus we feel both distance and intimacy as Linn brings us razor-close to the pores on the face of a weathered cigarette smoker (at right); sadness and hilarity as he shoots the back of a lone paradegoer observing former Mayor Frank Jordan riding by in a ridiculous hat. ''One American Reality'' is an America seen through one man's personal and professional lens, certainly, and it is an unforgettable America that stays with us long after the book's end. --San Francisco Chronicle April 27, 1997 04:00 AM
Black and white is alive and well! One American Reality, by Dong Lin, San Francisco: Cypress Press, 1996. Book review by Sam Winch, (March 1997, News Photographer Magazine, National Press Photographers Association) NPPA member Dong Lin, noted photojournalist from Beijing, China, has put together one of the finest volumes of black and white documentary photography in recent memory. His beautifully stark photographs of the ugly underbelly of American street life remind me of the best work of Robert Frank, Diane Arbus and perhaps Garry Winogrand. I was awe-struck at the radiant luminescence of these images, which were evidently made with a Leica. Dong Lin truly knows the medium of light. You get the same feeling when you look at Sebastiao Salgado s work: These photographers have a special gift for capturing the full range of light in their photographs. Dong Lin s images show a part of American life that many find easy to ignore. Faced with uncomfortable scenes of urban decay and hopelessness that prompt many of us to turn away, he frames soulful compositions of emotionally-charged subjects, often with an ironic twist. His images captivate, even when the subjects are hard to take. The introduction, by Orville Schell, dean of the Graduate school of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, reminds us there is a long tradition of Westerners documenting the street and rural life of China, while Dong Lin is perhaps the first person in modern times (perhaps ever?) to do the exact opposite, that is, to come from China to document Western society. Dong Lin s fresh visions are perhaps a result of his unique cross-cultural perspective. Whatever the reasons for his perceptive and exceptional view of our culture, Americans owe him debt of gratitude for showing us what we reality look like. My only complaint is that there are no captions, only the place name and years the pictures were taken (eg. Los Angeles, 1993 ). That, I surmised, would locate Dong Lin s work in the art world, though I d rather we claim it in the journalism world. When I asked him whether it was art or journalism, he laughed. I don t consider myself an artist, he says. I think it s a documentary. Still, this is some of the most artistic journalism I ve seen in a long time. I highly recommend this book --March 1997, News Photographer Magazine, National Press Photographers Association
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