DOROTHY HONG
INTRODUCTIONS

VISION QUEST Contemporary Photography is pleased to present the photographic exhibition by Dorothy Hong: “Introductions”

Most photographers, when questioned on how they came upon their craft, are quick to offer childhood anecdotes, inspirational tales, stories about a treasured family camera. But not Dorothy Hong. \"My story is pretty uninteresting,\" she admits. \"I chose photography by default in high school when I had to start looking at colleges and come up with a major. I thought to myself, \'Well, I like photography, I might as well do that.\' \" And off she went to the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. She quickly landed an intern position at The Fader magazine and the rest, as they say, is history.

Currently, Hong works full time as in-house photographer and photo shoot coordinator at The Fader, working side by side with creative director Phil Bicker as she creates narratives through portraiture. \"Dorothy\'s turned her eye to a wide range of photographic assignments over the past couple of years here,\" says Bicker, \"however, it is in her portrait work that her signature style and approach first appeared, and has remained. Dorothy has an innate sense of composition, along with an unpretentious sensibility that allows her to create a series of distinctive images for us.\"

For example, she recently did a portrait-based story for the magazine on teenage residents of a Brooklyn hostel, and an upcoming portrait/documentary-style spread on the personal style of some 20-something New York hipsters who frequent the same Manhattan club week after week. As for getting jobs outside of The Fader, Hong simply sent e-mails introducing herself and her web site to creatives at Theme and Dazed & Confused (where she shot a one-page portrait of singer Rufus Wainwright and choreographer Stephen Petronio). \"I think art directors like how personal I\'m able to get with my subjects,\" says Hong, who works primarily in medium format. \"And the light; I\'m a huge ambient light photographer. I never add lights, ever. I kind of follow the sun, wherever it goes. Natural light dictates most of my photography.\"

In that vein of simplicity, Hong loves using film when she does her portrait work and says that working indoors allows her more control, \"as long as a window is nearby,\" she laughs. \"The way I shoot is simple,\" she sums up, \"just me and my camera and lots of natural light.\"

Jacqueline Tobin, Photo District News, New York

 

Dorothy Hong was born in 1983 in New York and raised on a very long island off the coast of Manhattan. She attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City and graduated with a BFA in 2005. In 2007 she was chosen as one of PDN’s 30 Emerging Photographers to watch. She has worked with Giant Magazine and Newsweek, Nike and Sony have been her customers.
Often her photography shows a mixture of historical-artistic influences, like for example the typically American crop and the use of light so dear to the painters of the Italian Renaissance. This peculiarity enhances the expression of her subjects: glances, postures, places, all accentuating the emotions that  drive the young generations of today. This is her first solo exhibit outside of the USA.