My family immigrated from Guangzhou, China to New York City in the 80’s hoping to start a new life. They worked tirelessly to save up enough money to provide my sister and I a sanctuary that will be the foundation of our family. My parents began to slowly adapt to the fast-paced and cultured lifestyle of New York City but that didn’t stop my parents from reminiscing their life back in China. In the bottom shelf of my mother’s drawers are pictures that she has captured through her old camera. There were pictures of her wedding, the dates my parents went on, and so much more. The memories symbolized my parent’s background from the way they dressed to the way they acted. The smiles on my parent’s faces when they went to the beach, the furrowed brows of my dad trying to fix the chair, and the sweat on their faces all emanate their youth. Photography was one of the many ways my family kept in touch with each other, despite being continents away. My mother was always the camera woman of the family and she would always capture these beautiful moments that my family had. Now that I’m older, I look back these photos and I am so grateful my mother was able to capture these moments for our family to look back on. Back then, there wasn’t any technology to preserve these pictures so it’s been a family tradition to go to a photo printing store to have a physical copy in our hands. When my parents moved from China to New York, they had three things: dreams, fears, and pictures.

– Anna Yang

Relationship:  Child of im/migrant Child of im/migrant