The idea for this photo series originated from two concepts - the lack of Asian representation
in the Golden Age of Hollywood (save for Anna May Wong) and the still present difficulty
my mixed-Asian friends experience with casting in the entertainment industry.

I am a lover of pop culture and enjoy incorporating period-specific aesthetics within my work.
Specifically, I love recreating, while adding a modern element. The result is almost an optical illusion:
you end up looking at something uncanny, unquestionably of that time period, but there’s something new.
It creates a sort of loop, with focus shifting from both ends of the cultural spectrum.

For this project, I recreated the style of portraiture for Hollywood icons like Cary Grant,
Katharine Hepburn, Gregory Peck, and more. It satisfies the 100-year-long deficit of portraits for
Asian American actors in the classic Hollywood presentation. While our presence was scarcely
an element in Old Hollywood, this is our way of announcing: This is NEW Hollywood.