Perpetual Foreigner
Andrew Kung
Adobe Creative Residency Community Fund Project
March - May 2021
Perpetual Foreigner is a photo series that celebrates and highlights Asian American belonging in a country that has labeled Asian Americans as invisible, the "other", and not American enough. The project reclaims what it looks like and what it means to be American and redefines the gaze in which we visualize "Americana".
Roles
Photographer: Andrew Kung
Creative Director/Fashion Stylist: Kathleen Namgung
Behind The Scenes/Video: Brian Chu
Goal
Reclaim what it looks like to be "American" and highlight Asian Americans as Americans who have belonged and will always belong in the United States.
While we’ve seen recent success and momentum in the media, Asian Americans have been and are still facing racism in this country. Anti-Asian hate crimes are at an all time high, and even with award nominations for Minari, an American film about a family growing roots in the US, it was classified as a foreign language film, showing how far we are from embracing American narratives that don’t look and sound a certain way. For us to really start making progress, we need to push for awareness, education and empathy not only from our allies, but also from within our own community.
Process
In our collaborations, we always start with a concept or idea that emerges from casual conversations. It’s a topic or interest that we’re both passionate about and begins to evolve into a more formal narrative and story, which then influences the visual direction and inspiration. These visual references exist in everyday life, films, vintage and contemporary photographs, and other forms of fine art. We always want the final product to be more than just a beautiful photo; we’re intentional about every detail and how it translates to our narrative, from casting, set design, environment, to styling.
This idea started last year through a series of casual conversations and reflections on our experiences growing up as Asian American. We both grew up around white protagonists on Abercrombie shopping bags, Disney channel shows, mainstream movies, and more. The deeper we dug into our own past, the more we realized we grew up feeling invisible as everyday Americans, wondering if we actually had a place in this country or if we would always be perpetual foreigners.
We were inspired by and created an image archive of locations, activities, and styling reflective of the 90’s/early 2000’s, an era that shaped our childhood and teenage years. Instead, we wanted to envision Asian American faces as the protagonists.
See below for the remaining project gallery and for press features on Perpetual Foreigner.
The project premiered on CNN in late May 2021 and was recently featured in Vogue; more press will be releasing soon.
Take a look behind the scenes as we produced 6 shoots, photographed across Brooklyn, Queens, and New Jersey.
In conclusion, we hope that this project adds to the representation of Asian Americans in the United States - and reclaims what it means to be American in this country.
