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Lee, 73, was admitted to Long Island Jewish
Hospital in Forest Hills on Jan. 7, said Karlin Chan, a fellow
community activist.
Lee, who joked that he was the "undisputed unofficial Asian
American Photographer Laureate," embarked on his quest while
studying American history at Queens College in 1965.
Lee was puzzled by an official photo of the transcontinental
railroad at Promontory Summit, Utah, which was completed in 1868
largely with Chinese workers but showed none of them. At the
145th anniversary celebration of the event, Lee gathered a flash
mob of about 250 Chinese Americans for what he called a
'Photographic Act of Justice', with many posing in period
costume for his photo.
https://twitter.com/jenny8lee/
status/1354498200560873473
"I envision that the gathering ... is like a spark that ignites
a prairie fire, the spark will die, but the prairie fire will
spread far and wide," he said in an interview with AsAmNews in
2014.
"Corky reimagined it and put faces of Chinese Americans where
they had been excluded and getting no recognition," said
activist Helen Zia. "That's what Corky did."
The self-trained freelancer also photographed civil rights
protests, immigration legislation, and theatrical events.
https://twitter.com/ChrisMarteNYC/
status/1354532171592183810
"I had to think that every time I take my camera out of my bag,
it is like drawing a sword to combat indifference, injustice and
discrimination and trying to get rid of stereotypes," he told
AsAmNews.
His 1975 photo of a Chinese American man bloodied by New York
City police appeared on the front page of the New York Post
diary, helping to galvanize a protest march from Chinatown to
City Hall.
Lee photographed protests against the 1982 murder of Vincent
Chin, a young Chinese American in Michigan, by autoworkers who
blamed Japan for the loss of U.S. auto jobs.
"If you want something other than the usual stereotyped images
of Chinatown or 'orientals,' he has them," said Jack Tchen,
director of a 2002-2003 exhibition of Lee's work.
The Corky Lee Recovery Fundraiser, a Facebook page set up by
friends for the Queens, New York, native, raised over $46,000 to
help pay for his medical bills. (https://tinyurl.com/yyotm27f)
Lee is survived by his brother John Lee.
(Reporting by Richard Chang, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
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