Christian Lee – Shh! – Create* Inspire* Community* Art* Design* Music* Film* Photo* Project
Personal series from filmmaker and photographer Christian Lee (previously featured here). Lee is an award-winning storyteller and Hoyt Scholar at UCLA. For Lee, the camera can be used to restore dignity and agency to communities that are often erased from the larger story of American life. The photos shown here revolve around Lee’s own upbringing. When his family immigrated to the United States, they settled in South Los Angeles. Lee remembers driving down Western Avenue and making a spontaneous trip to Crenshaw, where they visited the small apartment where his father and siblings grew up:
“My relatives’ relationship with this city presents a complex interplay of sorrow and joy, struggle and success—and as we marched in the annual Kingdom Day parade, the oft-synthesized immigration narrative began to dynamically take shape. Honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is critical to the progress of our respective communities and the profound impact of Dr. King’s heroism. It allows us to confront a complex history filled with tension, injustice, and violence. Violence. This part of the city was not always unified, yet, as my loved ones reminded me, we never stopped rebuilding. With the Kingdom Day parade canceled and many Angelenos mourning, attending the rescheduled Dr. King Parade was a beautiful display of unity in a time when apathy seemed to prevail. I see the future when I interact with children watching curiously from their porches or families cheering under the palm trees of our city. I see hope. ”
Christian Lee is shortlisted for our 2025 Booooooom Art & Photography Book Awards. His first monograph, Crenshawto be released in April 2026 by Kris Graves Projects (KGP Monolith).
