Brandon Leung

PROJECT STATEMENT

“The photographs in the Houseboy series were inspired by my encounter with archival images of Chinese Houseboys in British Columbia. Many early Chinese immigrants to Canada worked as household labourers for wealthy White Canadian families in BC. Across a few BC archives, I have found group photographs of these families, which include the family’s Chinese servants, standing out, like a ghostly presence. I made the photographs in this series to conjure these early Chinese immigrants into the present day, outside of their originating pictures, mediated through the computer screen as I found them, and as most people see images today.

The color double self-portraits are influenced by the practices of early Chinese Canadian studio photography, such as the early 20th century photographs of C.D. Hoy. Working in early 20th century Quesnel, B.C. He used what he had on hand, the porch of his store, scraps of wallpapers, and luxury items to construct portraits of the local inhabitants, white, Chinese, and Indigenous. Such photographs show the role of portraiture in identity formation and have been analyzed as constituting a hybrid nature, taking cues from traditional Chinese ancestor portraits. The self-portraits are also influenced by the practice of editing absent family members into family photographs. With the unique situation many early Chinese immigrants found themselves in, travelling between China and Canada and separated by exclusionary policies, printing in family members from other photographs became a way to constitute a family in full. The black and white photographs taken in domestic settings connect the images of houseboys to the space and work that houseboys and many early Chinese immigrants were confined to.” – Brandon Leung