FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE HOW NOW CHINATOWN: Seven Photographers February 12 – March 25, 2016 Opening Reception: Friday, February 12, 5-8 PM Legion 678 Commercial Street San Francisco, CA 94111 Contact: Sydney Pfaff / Alice Wu tel 415-733-7900 info@legionsf.com

Benjamen Chinn, Drying Fish (Wentworth Alley), 1947

Legion presents HOW NOW CHINATOWN: Seven Photographers, featuring works by California-based photographers. This transgenerational show includes images of San Francisco Chinatown from the 1940s through the present. HOW NOW CHINATOWN brings together a range of perspectives from native San Franciscans born and raised in the city to those who have forged personal connections with Chinatown by exploring its streets and alleys to observe and absorb its life while getting to know its residents and local business owners. Chinatown is a place to call home, a refuge, a community, and a familiar ground to return to again and again. Benjamen Chinn (1921-2009, San Francisco) first learned photography from his older brother at age 10, printing photos in a darkroom set up in the basement of the family home on Commercial Street in Chinatown. He served as an aerial photographer in the Army during World War II. Afterwards, he enrolled at the California School of Fine Arts (now San Francisco Art Institute), studying with Ansel Adams and Minor White, and photographing the streets of Chinatown. Chinn moved to Paris, continuing his art studies with Fernand Léger and Alberto Giacometti. Upon returning to San Francisco (and to the family home on Commercial St., where he lived nearly all his life), he embarked on a career with the US Sixth Army Photo Lab in the Presidio, rising to Chief of Photographic Services and later, Chief of Training Aids & Services Division. He trained a generation of military photographers including then-enlisted Paul Caponigro. After Chinn retired, he volunteered at a local Chinatown photo store, developing customer photos on the one-hour machine. Chinn has exhibited at SFMoMA, Chinese Historical Society of America, SFO Museum, SFAI, and more. He is included in The Golden Decade: Photography at the California School of Fine Arts, 1945-55, published by Steidl (Spring 2016). Charles Wong (b. 1922, San Francisco) was born “within the boundaries where, Broadway below Montgomery Street, beyond Pine Street, and Powell Street, lies San Francisco Chinatown…it was unwritten, but somehow, that was our boundary…the ghetto.” Wong received a scholarship to the California School of Fine Arts (now SFAI) in 1940. WWII interrupted; Wong joined the Air Force. He returned to the California School of Fine Arts from 1949-1951 to enroll in the photography program newly founded by Ansel Adams. He studied with Adams, Edward Weston, Minor White and Imogen Cunningham. Wong was awarded the prestigious Bender Grant-in-Aid, and the first in photography (1951). He has shown at the George Eastman House Study Room, San Francisco Museum of Art (now SFMoMA), M.H. de Young Memorial Museum (de Young), Gordon College, and Smith Anderson North. He is also included in the forthcoming Steidl title The Golden Decade. After a hiatus of nearly forty years, Charles Wong has recently resumed photography.

Irene Poon (b. 1941, San Francisco) is a photographer, art historian, curator and cultural activist, born and raised in San Francisco’s Chinatown where her father operated an herbal store on Grant Avenue. She studied with Don Worth at San Francisco State College (now San Francisco State University) where she received her MA in photography in 1967. Poon has shown at San Francisco Museum of Art (now SFMoMA), the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum (de Young), Crocker Art Museum, Smith Anderson North, and more. Poon curated several exhibitions for the Chinese Historical Society of America. She published Leading the Way: Asian American Artists of the Older Generation (2001), a book of photographic portraits and biographical sketches. While Poon was preparing this book, Imogen Cunningham introduced her to the work of Charles Wong. Today, Charles Wong and Irene Poon are partners and collaborators. In 2015, Poon and Wong published Read the Photograph, a volume of their images and texts ranging from the 1950s to the present. Andria Lo (b. 1981, Providence, RI) grew up in Alaska and Texas, and moved to the Bay Area to study art at UC Berkeley. Lo specializes in creative still life and documentary photography, and has been published in The San Francisco Chronicle, New York Times, Lucky Peach, San Francisco Magazine and Sunset. She was previously Director of Photography at Hyphen Magazine. Recent projects include botanical collages with the San Francisco Botanical Garden, art for SF Muni buses, and Chinatown Pretty, a collaboration with Valerie Luu, documenting the street style of longtime residents of San Francisco Chinatown, currently on view at 41 Ross. Jason Henry (b. 1985, Ft. Pierce, FL) is a documentary photographer, born and raised in South Florida to an Air Force family. He got his start in photography by taking pictures of his friends skateboarding. Henry received an AA in Sociology from Indian River Community College (2005), followed by Spanish language studies in Valencia and Barcelona. From 2006-2009, he studied photojournalism at the University of Florida, Gainesville. He relocated to San Francisco in 2011. Clients include The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Wired Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, NPR, Rolling Stone, Bloomberg Businessweek, and Medium. In 2015 he was featured in a two-person show, “Subjects,” at Athen B. Gallery in Oakland, CA. Vincent Trinh (b. 1986, Galang, Indonesia) is a photographer and filmmaker. He was born in a refugee camp; his love for storytelling stems from his family’s experience as part of the “Vietnamese Boat People” movement. He was awarded Best Film for UC Davis Asian American Film Festival in 2010, 2011, and 2012. Trinh is Director of Photography at Hyphen Magazine. He has been photographing Chinatowns regularly for the past two years. When not photographing, his passion lies in community outreach and social activism; he works with the Asian American Donor Program (AADP). Trinh graduated with a BA in English from UC Davis in 2012. Rebecca Goldschmidt (b. 1987, Phoenix, AZ) is an artist and educator currently living on the border between Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego, California. She holds a BA in German Studies from Lewis & Clark College and spent the past several years studying Spanish independently and at the UNAM in Mexico City. She teaches photography to refugee youth at The AjA Project in San Diego and to Latina teenagers with Las Fotos Project in Los Angeles and Tijuana. Goldschmidt cites Chinatown as a favorite place to photograph, whether in San Francisco, Chicago, Mexico City, New York or other cities on her regular travels. Legion is a contemporary lifestyle boutique representing independent designers, some local and exclusive to the area, including First Rite, Ali Golden, Kowtow, Ilana Kohn, Seek Collective, and Ben Medansky. Founded by Bay Area native and fashion writer Sydney Pfaff, Legion also stocks a selection of home design, paper goods, and books. HOW NOW CHINATOWN is part of a series curated for Legion by Alice Wu, supported by an Alternative Exposure Grant. Legion’s thematic exhibitions explore the intersection of art, commerce and design and Chinatown, where Legion is situated. HOW NOW CHINATOWN is on view February 12 through March 25, 2016 at Legion, 678 Commercial Street, San Francisco 94111. Legion is open Monday-Friday, 11AM-6PM, Saturday 1PM-5PM and by appointment. For further information and show images, please visit www.legionsf.com or contact Legion at info@legionsf.com or 415-733-7900.