Dialogue: San Francisco's Chinatown- Dick Evans and Kathy Chin Leong in conversation with Ben Fong Torres

San Francisco's Chinatown is the third in a series of contemporary documentary photography books by San Francisco resident and photographer Dick Evans – following his initial book in 2014 of Haight Ashbury and his 2017 award winning book on the The Mission. His approach in each case has been to develop an in-depth understanding of each neighborhood through close collaboration with leading non-profits, community organizations, artists and local businesses. In this book he collaborates with freelance writer Kathy Chin Leong, who has conducted over 100 interviews in the course of writing the text, captions and sidebar stories that provide context to the images. Dick Evans and Kathy Chin Leong will be in conversation with Ben Fong-Torres, author and journalist. 

All revenue from book sales will be donated to collaborating non-profit organizations. 

Dick Evans is a San Francisco–based photographer with an interest in documenting the colorful and rapidly changing neighborhoods of the city. Born into a ranching family in Eugene, Oregon, he graduated as an engineer from Oregon State University and subsequently obtained a master’s in management from Stanford. He has spent his fifty-year career in the global metals sector, living in five countries and multiple locations in Africa, Europe, and North America. It was during these travels that he developed an appreciation for the diversity and richness of different cultures—both global and local—and an interest in documentary photography.

Kathy Chin Leong is an award-winning journalist with articles published in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, National Geographic Books, Sunset Magazine, and many other newspapers and magazines.  As a second-generation ABC (American-born Chinese), she grew up in San Francisco’s Sunset district, and spent nearly every weekend in Chinatown visiting her grandmother and helping her mother shop for groceries.  While she has travelled the globe to Lebanon, France, Thailand, and Canada, rediscovering her Chinatown roots through collaboration on this book has been a journey of a lifetime.  Kathy lives in Sunnyvale, California with her devoted husband Frank Leong Jr. and is the proud mother of two grown children, Gwendolyn and Aaron.

Ben Fong-Torres began contributing to Rolling Stone in spring 1968, just months after it began. In over a decade there, he became senior editor and wrote more than 30 cover stories. He was portrayed in Almost Famous. Ben also is a broadcaster, from KSAN in the ‘70s to Moonalice Radio today and has won 5 Emmys for co-anchoring the Chinese New Year Parade on KTVU. He is the author of a dozen books, including his best-selling memoir, The Rice Room. 

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San Francisco's Chinatown the book - Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook  

Heyday Books - Website | Twitter | Instagram

Kathy Chin Leong - Instagram | Facebook 

Ben Fong-Torres - Website 

 

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