Baldwin Lee: Looking is Harder Than It Looks

A first-generation Chinese American, Baldwin Lee is a photographer and educator known for his photographs of Black communities in the American South. Lee received a bachelor's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1972) where he studied photography with Minor White, and went on to receive an master's of fine arts from Yale University (1975) where he studied with Walker Evans. In 1982, he became an art professor at the University of Tennessee, where he founded the university's photography program. He then decided to take a tour of the deep south, covering 2,000 miles over the course of ten days. During this trip, Lee widely photographed the people, landscapes, and cities of the south. In his work, Lee strived to represent his subjects as individuals with vibrant personalities, rather than reducing them to stereotypes or emphasizing their poverty. Lee’s work is in the collections of George Eastman Museum. Hear about Lee's journey and artistic process as a photographer and educator during his talk.

[@sterlingworrell5099]

I studied with Professor Lee at UTK in the mid 1980s. His passion, talent, and humor for photography and life changed the course of my life. I cannot thank him enough for for the positive influence he had on me. I used to love seeing all these amazing pictures as he was making them.