A Chinese photographer called Andrew Kong to confront racism against Asian Americans, by doing special photo sessions, as Kong was bullied and racially insulted, when he visited New York as a teenager.

The Sino-American photographer was raised in the . region “Sunset District” In San Francisco, which is home to a large Asian population, the county looks like a Chinatown, according to CNN Arabia.

Kong was growing up Surrounded by people who look like his parents and grandparents, eating the same food he did, but On one of his first trips to New York on the East Coast, Kong was crossing the street when a sanitation worker yelled at him and racially abused him.

“It was really the first time that I felt different from others, even though I was in a city like New York,” Kong said.“.

Although it has been nearly a decade since Conde was racially abused, during the pandemic violence against Asian Americans has increased. Kong said: Who moved to Brooklyn in 2016 It’s “another reminder that we will always be foreigners, we have been asked to return to our country, while this is our home.”“.

Andrew Kong pictures

Rising violence against Asian Americans directly inspired the latest Kong project كونج “Perpetual Foreigner”, which is a collection of over a dozen images of Asians occupying “everyday American spaces”, such as parks or beaches.

Kong, who wrote on his website that his work aims to “normalize Asian American beauty, belonging, and individuality,” explained: “I wanted to put Asian faces and Asian bodies in those purely American spaces, We deserve to be American like everyone else“.

In one of the project photos, there is a black and white photo of a girl looking directly into the camera lens, lying in the bedroom, with the American flag hanging on her wall..

With increasing violence and discrimination targeting Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, Kong said the project has taken on even greater importance..