Robert "Bud" Glick | NYC's Chinatown |MOCA

Photo � Robert "Bud" Glick | Courtesy BuzzFeed News 

I seldom attend photo exhibitions -and particularly avoid previews of of any sort of exhibitions- however I made an exception with the interesting Interior Lives: Photographs of Chinese Americans in the 1980s currently at the Museum of Chinese in America in New York City. The exhibition will run from October 18, 2018 - March 24, 2019.

The story behind the exhibition is also very interesting. In 1981, the New York Chinatown History Project (now the Museum of Chinese in America) commissioned photographer Bud Glick to document the street life, people, and domestic scenes of NYC's Chinatown at a time when more immigrants from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China were moving into Chinatown, opening up new businesses just as older shops were closing down. The photographs in the series were captured between 1981 and 1984.

The complete (52) photographs can be viewed on Mr Glick's website. There are also various links to his work and interviews. These can be viewed on BuzzFeedNews, Slate, and HyperAllergic.

My interest in this exhibition was not only for the admirable monochromatic images, but because I'm fond of photographing Chinatown's streets which give me the smells, the sounds and the feel of the exotic produce of Hong Kong or Shanghai. Viewing the exhibition's photographs in MOCA's setting gave me the same sensations. I also read in the many interviews by Mr Glick that he connected with his subjects by establishing a good rapport with them, which is the optimal way to photograph people...and a way of photographing which I share wholeheartedly.

The exhibition is not a large one, but is well arranged to the left of the entrance in the museum. I estimate there is about 40 framed photographs on the exhibition walls. My very favorite image is of the late Mrs Chiu (above) who photographed in her apartment in 1981 just exudes an air of regal serenity.

Photo � Robert "Bud" Glick | All Rights Reserved

The other image I liked a lot is the one of an elderly dapper gentleman sitting in a cafe watching the world pass by.

According to an interview with PetaPixel, Mr Glick shot all his images on Tri-X using either a Leica M4P, Leitz Minolta CL, Nikon F3 or a Mamiya 645, and used Photoshop just to bring out the blacks. Mr. Glick is also embarking on a project with MOCA�s co-founder to reconnect with the subjects of his photographs. 

Robert "Bud" Glick has been a photographer for over 25 years. His clients include: Assurant, Inner-City Scholarship Fund, United Hospital Fund, Visiting Nurse Service of New York, Hospital for Special Surgery, New York Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, NYU Medical Center, NYU, Pace University, Fordham University, NJIT, New York YMCA, Gannett, Stein Communications, Pfizer, AT&T, Syms Clothing, Fortis, Smithsonian Magazine, People Magazine, hgDesign, Arnold Saks Associates, DeSantis Breindel, Suka Creative.

He has taught as an adjunct professor in the art departments of Brooklyn College, Queens College, C. W. Post and William Patterson University.