Artist Statement

As a documentary photographer, my work is inspired by the vast panorama of urban history and cultural diversity in the boroughs of New York City. Time and again I am drawn to the “endangered species” of New York neighborhood. This is the ethnic enclave to which gentrification comes slowly, if at all, and which seems to function apart from the rest of the city as though protected by an invisible moat. For over two decades I’ve documented streetscapes and candid portraits of NY Chinatown in photographs marked by the complex blending of East and West, old and new, layer upon layer of the area’s distinctive identity. While recording places and people that assign paramount importance to heritage, religious observance and personal relationships, my mission is to continue the long tradition of street photographers whose images of everyday life illustrate human nature and changing times.

My photographs have been internationally published, exhibited and included in permanent collections, including the Asian American Federation of New York, Chinese Historical Society of America and Museum of the Chinese in the Americas. In 2008, Chinatown was the subject of my solo show at Gouverneur Hospital. Also in 2008, my work was included in a Health & Hospitals Corporation traveling exhibit, and in group shows at the Brooklyn Public Library and Brooklyn Museum. The current exhibition at Bistrouge serendipitously coincides with Lunar New Year 4707.

Kitty Katz
February 2009