My name is Lee Wai Chang and I was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota. I am 15 years old, and also an Asian-American photographer that was raised in the city full of opportunities to be an artist. I am an upcoming sophomore in 2011-2012 at Johnson Senior High School. One of my friends, Gaona Xiong, who is another photographer influenced me by her artwork to become one myself. She introduced me to In-Progress. A non-profit organization that teaches music, video, and photography for many years now. One of In-Progress’s photography members, Raynie Vang, mentored me to become a photographer. I wanted to become a photographer because I wanted to express my feelings into artwork.
My artwork has been shown in two Saint Paul Art Crawls, both spring and fall of 2010-2011. Some of my artwork were show in the Qhia Dab Neeg event, at Coco and Metropolitan State University in Saint Paul. Since then my artwork has been traveling to other places.
Photography impacted my life by giving me a better view to life. It showed me all the little details of an artwork. My perception now towards photos is that I shouldn’t judge how it looks like, I should listen to the story that lays behind a photo. A picture can mean a thousand words.I believe that if you truly love photography then you are able to show it on a picture. During training for becoming a photographer, I motivated myself into becoming a stronger and better photographer, as I am now.
