Jarod Lew是一名美籍華裔攝影師，擅長捕捉亞裔族群在美國生活的縮影，他的作品大多聚焦在少數民族以及身分認同等議題上；Jarod Lew的攝影風格寫實不造作，在饒富生活感的畫面中，總能扼要點出亞裔在美國可能要面臨到的焦慮跟孤立，目前他的攝影作品Please Take Off Your Shoes正於SFMOMA展出。
「攝影與我的相遇總讓我覺得像是魔法一樣。」Jarod Lew持續用攝影回應自己的身分、家族以及對於生命的得與失，在這次訪談中，他毫不保留地分享他的矛盾心情、創作思考以及未來計畫。
以下採訪Cacao mag簡稱C，Jarod Lew簡稱J
C：你可以跟讀者介紹自己的背景嗎？什麼契機影響你走上攝影這條路？
J：我出生在密西根州底特律一個相對白人佔大多數的郊區長大。高中畢業後，進入密西根州立大學，主修平面設計。畢業後，當時密西根州的經濟蕭條，我很難找到一份平面設計師的工作。
而正好當時我女朋友的奶奶突然打電話給我，說她夢見我在她的高中肖像攝影工作室工作，她認為這是一個好徵兆所以決定雇用我，所以一切就從那個攝影工作室開始。我發現了我對攝影的熱愛，儘管我以前從來沒有認真學習攝影，但運用攝影來表現我的藝術主張感覺十分自然。從那時起，我就開始以攝影這個媒介來創作，並以當時所處的環境與社區作為主題，並開始專研個人創作。攝影與我的相遇總讓我覺得像是魔法一樣。
C：在你的作品《Please Take Off Your Shoes》裡，出現了許多在亞洲人家裡常會出現的靜物。你當時如何想到將兩者結合在攝影之中？更重要的是，你如何將美國郊區的元素融入在作品之中？
J：我稍微回溯一下，在《Please Take Off Your Shoes》之前，我在工作的高中肖像攝影工作室發現我媽媽與文森特．陳（Vincent Chin）曾經訂過婚，他是一位華裔美國製圖員，被兩名白人汽車工人殺害。而他的死也引發了1982年最大規模的亞裔美國民權運動。
在得知我的家庭與這段歷史的連結後，我開始重新審思我的世界觀和身為華裔美國人的這個身份。這種轉變迫使我去尋找在成長過程中我一直忽視的亞裔身份。我開始與朋友和陌生人合作，進行肖像攝影，在創作了15-20張肖像照片後，我意識到這系列照片中缺少了某種元素。這些照片無法明確表達亞裔經歷到的各種困難與複雜性。
有一天，我在朋友的臥室中幫她拍照時，突然頓悟了。臥室的牆上裝飾著美國龐克搖滾海報、歐洲的畫像和高中獎狀，我突然意識到房間是最具亞洲特色的存在。然後，在她父母的客廳裡，中式雕塑、裝飾和來家庭照片無所不在，我感覺自己是這個房子裡中最不具亞洲特色的存在。
在那一刻，我意識到這種疏遠感不僅發生在我們舒適的家外，甚至也發生在其中。沒有隱密或安全的空間能夠保護我們免受種族差異的影響，這些物品能夠清楚地刻劃出這種疏離的感覺，尤其是在肖像攝影中。因此，在之後的肖像攝影中，我開始探索人物與他們個人物品之間的關係，我認為這種關係更能捕捉到我之前所錯過的亞裔美國人經歷的細微差異。
C：過去其他採訪，你提到你是在長大後才發現你母親的婚約。你如何描述你與家人之間的關係？根據我個人的經驗，亞洲父母通常不會向子女表達他們的情感或感受。你認為你與家人之間的關係，有為你的創作帶來影響嗎？
J：我和父母的關係其實是偏向互相鼓勵與支持的，他們通常會與我分享他們的感受，所以也許我的經歷有些不同。的確，他們隱瞞了文文森特．陳的歷史，但那是為了我母親的幸福與身心健康。如果我在學校中以別種方式也能夠接觸到亞裔美國歷史的話，我認為她的秘密就不會變得如此沉重和令人難以置信。
我更想準確地說，我認為亞裔小孩和父母之間的疏遠往往有可能是因為美國在教育上特別抹除了亞裔歷史。無論我和父母的關係多麼親近，這種關係始終會受到教育的影響，無論我們對歷史了解多少或完全不了解。我的父母之所以隱瞞他們的過去，不是因為他們不想讓我知道，而是為了能更好地專注於他們現在的生活，並且好好撫養孩子。我認為我的無知不是他們的錯，而是少數民族在美國受教育下所可能會發生的結果。
C：我記得第一次獨自在美國生活時，孤獨和孤立的感覺總籠罩著我，實際上我花了很多時間去適應獨處的感覺。而從你的作品中，我也注意到其中也帶有孤獨和諷刺幽默的感覺。你會如何描述你作品中的孤立感？
J：《Please Take off Your Shoes》這個作品的動機，是我想要與中西部地區的其他亞裔美國人建立聯繫，產生共鳴。雖然照片中可能表現出了孤獨和疏離感，但拍攝的目的，是希望彼此有機會分享和討論這些孤獨和疏離感受的結果。
當我系統性地在思考這些作品時，我想到的是一種矛盾：透過分享我們個人的孤獨經歷，我們感受到了社群和聯繫的感覺。在這種感覺中，你可以感受到不再孤單，這也成為了處理創傷和羞愧的機會。
在很多方面，拍攝這些作品是為了打破在家庭空間中普遍存在的孤獨、創傷和羞愧的感覺，尤其是通過幽默且風趣的方式。我們在拍攝的現場常常會出現很多笑聲，是因為我們感覺到了彼此比較私人的情緒，而幽默可以相當程度的減輕家中存在的沉重感，家並不一定要是一個嚴肅的空間。
C：在社交媒體上，有很多不同的創作者在慶祝亞裔美國人(AAPI)的崛起，我認為社交媒體是一個非常好的媒介或平台，可以真實地為我們發聲。你對此有何看法？社交媒體的崛起是否對你的創作過程產生影響？此外，作為一位亞裔美國藝術家，你目前面臨的最大挑戰或困境又是什麼？
J：我認為社交平台在擴大相同性質的創作者上做的非常出色。對我來說，它幫助我，解開常常會感受到的孤立和寂寞的束縛。因此，我能夠從完全陌生的人那裡得到對於作品的共鳴或肯定。更重要的是，這些平台還有助於激發一些新的點子或想法。
我非常支持這些創作者利用社交平台去交流。而我認為作為一位亞裔美國藝術家，我面臨的最大挑戰，莫過於是如何面對那些無知且帶有歧視意味的言論或想法，然後專注於更清晰的表現出美國亞裔人士所面臨的挑戰。幸運的是，這些問題似乎都正在慢慢的改善，而社交平台也讓我有機會與藝術世界中最慷慨、出色的策展人、作家和學者合作。
C：未來有什麼計劃？對於攝影或藝術相關領域的應屆畢業生，你有什麼建議嗎？
J：我現在正著手創作一些新的作品。非常期待看到它們的發展以及可能會出現的問題。同時，我也想要前往香港和中國去進行一些新的創作或嘗試，但可能要等到我完成在耶魯的學業。
噢，建議！我每次在給予建議時總是感覺很困難，因為我們每個人都會用不同的方式達到自己想要的目標。若以我親身經歷來說，我試著每天提醒自己不要放棄，去追求過程帶來的果實並勇於接受拒絕。
Jarod Lew is a Chinese American artist and photographer currently based in New Haven, Connecticut. His work explores themes of identity, community and displacement. One of his projects, Please Take Off Your Shoes was shortlisted for the Aperture Portfolio Prize in 2021, and is in a group exhibition at SFMOMA titled Kinship: Photography and Connection in 2023.
C: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your background? What led or inspired you into the area of photography?
Jarod Lew: I was born and raised in a fairly white suburban neighborhood in Metro Detroit, Michigan. After graduating high school, I attended Michigan State University and received a BFA in Studio Art with a concentration in Graphic Design in 2009. After I graduated, I had a difficult time landing a job as a graphic designer due to the economic climate in Michigan. Then randomly, the grandmother of my girlfriend at the time called me about a dream she had about me working at her high school portrait studio. She thought it was a good idea to hire me. I discovered my love for the medium at that studio. It felt so natural to use photography for my art practice even though I had never taken photography seriously before. And that’s when I began working on personal projects to understand the landscape I was in. The accidental nature of my run-in with photography will always feel like magic.
C: In “Please Take Off Your Shoes”, you capture a lot of still objects that are common in Asian households. How do you come up with the idea of combining people and objects together? Moreover, how do you successfully immerse yourself in the American style suburban environment with your own heritage?
Jarod Lew: To rewind a little bit, prior to Please Take Off Your Shoes, I discovered at the highschool portrait studio that my mom was engaged to Vincent Chin, who was a Chinese American draftsman that was killed by two white autoworkers. His death sparked the largest Asian American civil rights movement in 1982. Finding out my family’s connection to this history, shifted my perspective on the world and my own identity as Chinese American. This shift forced me to look for an Asian American community that I did not have growing up. I started reaching out to friends and strangers to collaborate on portraits. After creating 15-20 portraits and living with them in my studio, I realized that there was something missing in the series of images. They did not speak to the complexity of our experience.
I had this lightbulb moment where I was photographing my friend in her bedroom. The bedroom wall was decorated with American punk rock posters, images of European art, and high school award certificates. I suddenly felt like the most Asian thing in the room. Afterwards, while sitting in her parent’s living room surrounded by Chinese porcelain sculptures, Chinese wall decor, and family photographs from China, I felt like the least Asian thing in the room. In that moment, I realized that these feelings of alienation don’t just occur outside the comforts of our home but within it. There is no private or safe space that can defend us against the implications of racial difference. I realized that the objects we surround ourselves with tell a story of that alienation, especially within a photograph. In my future portrait sessions, I started to explore the relationships between the subjects and their personal possessions. This relationship better captured the nuances of the Asian American experiences I was missing before.
C: You mentioned in other articles that you find out about your mother’s engagement after you grown up. How will you describe the relationship between you and your family? From my personal experience, Asian parents often won’t tell their child their feelings or emotions. Do you think that tension between you and your family has an impact on your creative process?
Jarod Lew: I feel like my relationship to my parents is generally a supportive one. They would often share their feelings with me so perhaps my experience is a bit different. Yes, they withheld the Vincent Chin history from me, but that was necessary for my mother’s well-being. And the weight of her secret wouldn’t have been so heavy if I was somehow exposed to Asian American history in school. But the total absence of this knowledge throughout my education made my mother’s hidden past all the more shocking and unbelievable.
So, I wanted to more accurately attribute the tension between me and my parents to the erasure of this Asian American history. No matter how close I am with my parents, this relationship will always be affected by the history of how Asians were treated in the US regardless of how much we know or don’t know about it. My parents didn’t withhold their past because they didn’t want me to know. They did it so that they could better focus on their present lives, raising their children. My ignorance is not their fault but an effect of how race works in the US
C: I remember the first time living in the United States alone, the feeling of alienation and loneliness gripped all over me, and it actually took me so much time to adjust to the feeling of being alone. From your work I noticed that there is also a feeling of isolation and ironic humor in it. How will you describe the feeling of isolation in your works?
Jarod Lew: The impetus for Please Take off Your Shoes was my desire to connect with other Asian Americans in the midwest. While the photos might express loneliness and alienation, the photo shoots themselves were the result of being able to share those feelings with one another. When I think about the works collectively, I think about the paradox of feeling community and connection as a result of sharing our individual experiences of aloneness. You can feel less alone in that feeling, which can become the occasion to tackle the effects of intergenerational trauma and shame.
In many ways, making these images was a way to tear down the feelings of loneliness, intergenerational trauma, and shame that pervade domestic spaces–especially through humor. After bonding over our private feelings of shame, there is often laughter at the photoshoots. Humor mitigates any heavy feelings we might carry in the privacy of our homes. I think there’s a lot of subtle humor that can be found in these complicated homes. It doesn’t always have to be so serious!
C: There are a lot of different pages on social media that celebrate the rising of AAPI, and I think that’s an extremely helpful tool and platform to actually speak up for ourselves. What do you think about social media as a platform for our voices, and does the rising of social media impact your creative process? Moreover, what’s the biggest challenge or struggle that you face right now as an Asian American artist?
Jarod Lew: I think social media platforms are wonderful in expanding the accessibility of information from others that have similar/relatable experiences. For me, it helps unravel the grips of isolation and loneliness that you can often feel. Because of this accessibility, I am able to receive affirmation that the work is relatable from complete strangers! These platforms also help inspire new ideas for future works. I’m all for these ways of connecting and communicating. I think the biggest challenge for me as an Asian American artist is navigating and responding to ignorant/racist responses to ideas and works that deal with the Asian American experience. Luckily it feels like it’s becoming better. I’ve worked with some of the most generous and wonderful curators, writers, and academics in this system we call the art world.
C: What’s your future plans? Do you have any words or advice for recent graduates that might be interested in working in the photography or art related fields?
Jarod Lew:I’m working through some new projects right now. Excited to see where that goes and what new questions will come out of it. I would love to travel to make new work in Hong Kong and China. Perhaps that will happen sometime after I finish up at Yale. Oh no, the advice question! It feels so hard to give advice because we all get to where we want to go in different ways. Hmmm, what I try to remind myself everyday is- Don’t give up, obsess over your process and embrace rejection.
▌企劃編輯：Che
