Christine Chang Photography

The thought of entering someone’s home wasn’t a very thrilling concept a few months ago. In the past if I wanted to photograph a person in their home it took alot of asking, waiting, and prepping. But then my editor would tell me that the assignment is due tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, and then I realized, fear is a powerful thing. Fear made me think of everything but the positive: what if I get hurt, what if someone locks the door behind me and I never get out of there, what if they say no, and what if I knock on every door and no one lets me in.

The first time I had to do this type of assignment (I call it Home Entry assignments), I had to photograph people who live in low-income housing, and it was the most difficult thing, because with many homes I was talking to immigrants. I came from an immigrant family, so for the most part I know how many immigrants react to the media (usually with fear and distrust). So with my own background baggage I was knocking at every door, and people said what I expected: They took a look at my camera and my little girl smile and they said No. Absolutely not. You cannot come in.

But…I still needed to complete the assignment. So I went there a second time later on and I heard the same things. There was a bit of light at the end of the tunnel though, as one family let me in….to photograph their interior. None of them would get into the picture. Not exactly failure, but it still didn’t fulfill the assignment.

The third time I went there I went with the reporter, who was a big help to me. He had reported on many stories where he has had to go from door to door with his notepad in order to write the article. And lo and behold, an immigrant family warmly invited me into their home, with one thing in their living room: a couch with a bedsheet over it. By then I was so tired I didn’t really even care about artistic angles or lighting. I just asked them to sit on the couch and let me take that family photo.

That was a few months ago. I’ve done many home entry assignments since then, and I can’t say that more people have let me into their homes and it’s a piece of cake right now, but being rejected is alot easier on me now. I just thank them for their time and move on. I’m also a bit better at the door-to-door salesman thing. I try to sell them the idea that I am trying to portray the truth about a story and I need their help, because I do. I even did an extensive photo shoot with one woman and she called me later not wanting any pictures to be published. Fine, I can deal.

On the positive side, as usual with my photo endeavors, I met alot of interesting people. The lady above had been a journalist all of her life and we got to really connect in our passion for telling a story, and it was great listening to her travel experiences. I also met Sylvester Stallone’s stunt double (I guessed it when he said he was a stunt double), and he told me about how he was asked to but didn’t stunt double for the movie 300 because he wasn’t sure back then whether it was going to be a big film or not…little details like that really make my day.

…was great! Four days of nothing but shooting sports. I got to photograph with over $10,000 worth of equipment with no rental charge courtesy of Canon. I especially like the 300mm, I don’t need a tripod for it. With a 400mm I had to use a monopod because it was so heavy.

During the Academy I had a chance to shoot beach volleyball, boxing, baseball, indoor men’s volleyball, rugby, water polo, and crew. The hardest sports for me to shoot were men’s volleyball (it was so fast) and baseball (spurts of action at erratic times, with a heavy 400mm lens that I had trouble adjusting to). Here are some pics.

Yesterday I got to tag along with Sean Hiller, a photographer from the Torrance Daily Breeze. It was a bit strange in the sense that I drove by my grandma’s house (she passed away over 15 years ago), the hospital where I was born, the church that I went to (it’s now an apartment complex), and these childhood markers made me feel something. All I can say for now is that it’s weird, I haven’t been down Western Avenue. since I was a kid sitting in my parent’s car.

Torrance, in my opinion, is a bit of Middle America imported into Southern California. White picket fences, children playing in the yard, pumpkin patches and lots of family values. My family’s in Texas now, but I remember that my parents loved Torrance, and apparently alot of people I know still love Torrance for its good schools and its community. When we were driving around I saw alot of kids and pets, and that instantly made me feel at ease and it also reminded me of Norman Rockwell’s paintings.  It’s something that I don’t see often in the city. In the city where I live I see more things like a kid walking home from school and then standing in front of a closed strip club waiting to cross the street.

The thing I’ve noticed about Sean the most was his passion for photography. As I get older I find that it’s harder to meet passionate people. Sometimes I feel like everyone gets more disillusioned. But Sean still loves the art of photography, and he loves his job, and just hearing him go on about photography makes me feel like the long road is worth it, and after talking to him yesterday I think about whether I’m really ready to take that long road, but with passion the road isn’t as long as you think and with passion your goal’s always in sight.

He also speaks of one instance when he volunteered to wake up in the middle of the night to feed his infant daughter because he wanted to listen to the police scanner to see if there was any breaking news. It takes a special breed to be married to a photographer.

Here’s the wild art we caught.

Here’s Sean recording the mom and the kids’ names so he can properly caption the pic if published in the Daily Breeze.

If John McCoy, staff photographer from the LA Daily News, had a blog and he had an entry, maybe that’s the title he would name today’s entry.  In any case, today I got to tag along with him and a journalist in downtown LA for a story assignment. 

Here’s the story:  LA County wants to help the homeless more, so they are doing this by sending social workers into skid row in downtown LA.  Seeing families there, 3 out of 10 kids get taken away from the families because they are deemed too poor or unfit to raise kids. 

We walked around downtown LA and into skid row.  As I was walking around and smelling a lot of urine and trash, I thought, hey, this is just like where I was in China; poor and urban.  Then I felt at ease, because I was with two white guys who were big and tall.  So no need to worry about safety, John McCoy had way more expensive equipment than I did.  Usually I would go to these areas thinking that I’m a little Asian girl and that I’m not gonna make it out of this place without giving up my camera to a thief.  Then I say a little prayer and I go for it, take the pictures, and leave.  Every time I do this I leave the place a bit braver.  My professor tells me how during the LA Riots he would go into stores that were being looted and start taking pictures there, and I always tell myself that one day I will be at the level where I will be able to do that.

We didn’t get much today because the person who was supposed to show up to direct us to a family didn’t show, but I did get to meet a man who decided to lift up his shirt to us and show us 7 bullet wounds and a huge fissure on his stomach.  It reminded me of a watermelon just as it was about to be split open, and a wound in his neck.  We also went into an apartment complex that’s around $250 a month, with the highest priced rooms being $360 a month. 

What I’ll always remember from John McCoy is this: He said that in the end, you need the money, but how much do you need?  Your posessions come and go, even people come and go sometimes, but your experiences will be with you forever.  So if you want to do something like photojournalism, you’ve got to be ready to take the vow of poverty.  Sometimes poverty forces you to take risks that you wouldn’t otherwise take if you’re in comfort.  This can be a blessing in disguise, because sometimes when you’ve got nothing to lose you’re willing to work harder and take those risks.