This is a project that helped uncover the images of one remarkable, early photographer whose work was almost forgotten. Yucho Chow was Vancouver’s first Chinese commercial photographer and its most prolific. His lens captured thousands of faces of all skin colours, religious beliefs, incomes and backgrounds and chronicled a tumultuous time in Vancouver’s and Canada’s early history.
This 10-year project aimed to uncover and showcase this lost work. It involved hundreds of volunteer hours searching for his images and finding them one photo at a time, one family at a time, one story at a time.
In May 2019, we mounted the first-ever solo exhibition of Yucho Chow’s photographs.
In 2020, we published the limited-edition, coffee-table book entitled “Chinatown Through a Wide Lens: The Hidden Photographs of Yucho Chow.” The book went on to win the 2020 Vancouver Book Award and the 2020 Lt. Governor’s Medal for Historical Writing.
Finally, in 2021 we donated the Yucho Chow entire community archive (over 600 found photographs) to the City of Vancouver Archives. In a news release, the City noted “The donation of the Yucho Chow Community Archive collection is an important contribution to fill gaps in the archival holdings and to support a richer, more diverse and more accurate reflection on the history and the people of Vancouver.”
GET YOUR COPY OF OUR LIMITED-EDITION BOOK.
Contact us to find out ways to buy your copy: info@yuchochow.ca