American photographer, born in Hong Kong
Tseng Kwong Chi, known as Joseph Tseng prior to his professional career (Chinese: ; September 6, 1950 – March 10, 1990), was a Hong Kong-born American photographer who was active in the East Village art scene in the 1980s. He is the brother of dancer/choreographer Muna Tseng.
Work.
Tseng was part of a circle of artists in the 1980s New York art scene including Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf and Cindy Sherman.
Tseng's most famous body of work is his self-portrait series, "East Meets West", also called the "Expeditionary Series". In the series, Tseng dressed in what he called his "Mao suit" and sunglasses (dubbed a "wickedly surrealistic persona" by "The New York Times") and photographed himself situated, often emotionlessly, in front of iconic tourist sites. These included the Statue of Liberty, Cape Canaveral, Disneyland, Notre-Dame de Paris, and the World Trade Center.
Tseng also took over 40,000 of photographs of New York graffiti artist Keith Haring throughout the 1980s working on murals, installations and the subway. In 1984, his photographs were shown with Haring's work at the opening of the Semaphore Gallery East location in a show titled "Art in Transit". Tseng photographed the first Concorde landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport, from the tarmac. According to his sister, Tseng drew artistic influence from Brassaï and Henri Cartier-Bresson.
Life.
Tseng's father was a Kuomintang officer who fled Shanghai in 1949 when the Communists won the Chinese Civil War. Tseng was born in British Hong Kong the following year and was a child prodigy in Chinese painting and calligraphy. He was educated at St Joseph's College before his parents moved the family to Canada when he was 16. He originally studied painting at in Paris, but switched to photography after one year, having gained an interest photography after his father gave him a Rolleiflex camera. He moved to Manhattan's East Village in 1979, where he soon met fellow avant-garde artists Haring, Scharf, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Ann Magnuson.
Tseng started documenting Haring's work through photograph in 1979, travelling with him from 1982-1989, expanding his own "East Meets West" series.
Tseng died of AIDS-related illness in 1990, and was survived by his companion of seven years, Robert-Kristoffer Haynes, who remains a resident of New York City and serves as Registrar at Paula Cooper Gallery. Tseng's work is in the public collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Tseng has been included in the Asian American Arts Centre's digital archive.
References.
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