Join us for Visual Storytelling, a public forum featuring Magnum Foundation-supported photographers Chien-Chi Chang, Sim Chi Yin, and Lijie Zhang. They will discuss their work exploring social exclusion and economic disparity.

FREE and open to the public! Refreshments will be served.

The conversation will be moderated by Susan Meiselas, President of the Magnum Foundation, with introductory remarks by Cherian George, Associate Professor, Department of Journalism at Hong Kong Baptist University.

Sim Chi Yin will show Dying to Breathe, a project that weaves together still photographs and audio to convey a gold miner’s struggle with terminal lung disease. Lijie Zhang will share her project CiCi, a photographic collaboration exploring albinism through layers of colorful fantasy. And Chien-Chi Chang will present Side Chain, a video that revisits his previous work on mental illness.

Visual Storytelling is produced by Magnum Foundation in partnership with Asia Society’s ChinaFile and hosted by Hong Kong Baptist University’s School of Communication. Special thanks to the Institute of Creativity (IoC) of Hong Kong Baptist University, the Rosenthal Family Foundation, and to our individual donors for their generous support.

• Chien-Chi Chang is a Magnum photographer, making manifest the abstract concepts of alienation and connection in his work. The Chain is a collection of portraits made in a mental asylum in Taiwan, caused a sensation when it was shown at La Biennale di Venezia (2001) and the Bienal de Sao Paolo (2002). The life-sized photographs of pairs of patients literally chained together resonate with Chang’s jaundiced look at the less visible bonds of marriage. He has treated marital ties in two books—I do I do I do (2001), a collection of images depicting alienated grooms and brides in Taiwan, and in Double Happiness (2005), a brutal depiction of the business of selling brides in Vietnam.

• Sim Chi Yin is a visual author focused on documentary projects in Asia. She is particularly interested in history and memory, migration and transience. A fourth-generation overseas Chinese born and raised in Singapore, schooled in London and now based in Beijing for the past eight years, Chi Yin feels both southeast Asian and Chinese, and is curious about where cultures meet and blend or diverge. Her work has been screened at photo festivals in Arles and Perpignan, and exhibited at PhotoVille in New York, the Annenberg Space in Los Angeles, Paris Photo, Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, and at festivals in China. She has spoken and taught at festivals and schools in the US, Europe and Asia. Chi Yin is one of 18 photographers in the world represented by New York-based VII Photo Agency.

• Lijie Zhang was born in 1981 Beijing, CHINA. MA Photography, University of Arts London, MA Journalism, Beijing Normal University. She is currently working on a number of long-term projects, which include "The Innocent: mentally disordered artists", "The Rare: rare diseases in Mainland China", "Midnight Tweedle", and many more. She is the winner of Magnum Foundation Human Rights and Photography fellowship; Hou Dengke Documentary Photography Awards; silver prize of annual artists in Lianzhou International Photo Festival, etc. Her work has been featured worldwide including New York Times-Lens, Newsweek, Burn, VICE, and CHINA DAILY. Additionally, she is involved in multiple exhibitions in New York, Montreal, Aarhus-Denmark, London, LianZhou and PingYao.

• Susan Meiselas is the President of Magnum Foundation. Born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1948, she received her BA from Sarah Lawrence College and her MA in visual education from Harvard University. Her first major photographic essay focused on the lives of women doing striptease at New England country fairs, whom she photographed during three consecutive summers while teaching photography in New York public schools. Carnival Strippers was originally published in 1976 and a selection was installed at the Whitney Museum of Art in June 2000.

Magnum Foundation is a non-profit organization that expands creativity and diversity in documentary photography, activating new audiences and ideas through the innovative use of images. Through grantmaking, mentoring, and creative collaborations, we partner with socially engaged image-makers experimenting with new models of storytelling.

ChinaFile is an online magazine published by the Center on U.S.-China Relations at Asia Society, dedicated to promoting an informed, nuanced, and vibrant public conversation about China, in the U.S. and around the world.

Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) encompasses eight Faculties/Schools offering a range of degree programmes. It prides itself on its dual focus on teaching and research and encourages service to society among its staff and students. Over the years, HKBU has remained committed to academic excellence and the development of the whole person, and has gained a reputation as one of Asia’s finest institutions of higher learning. The School of Communication at Hong Kong Baptist University was founded in 1968. It provides a comprehensive range of programmes in journalism and communication at undergraduate and postgraduate level. The School maintains close connections with Hong Kong's media and creative industries, and given its long history and influence. In line with the University's "whole person education" philosophy, the mission of the School of Communication is to provide an innovative approach to its field and to build on unity, leadership, and growth to best serve its students and the community.

Photo Caption: Gold miner He Quangui, battling silicosis, struggles to breathe as he is cradled in the arms of his wife Mi Shixiu. Mr. He picked up the irreversible disease working in illegal gold mines in China's Henan province; he's among some six million workers in China who have pneumoconiosis -- the country's most prevalent occupational disease. Photo by Sim Chi Yin. Shaanxi province, China.

Visual Storytelling: a public forum in Hong Kong