Pok Chi Lau

Some of Lau’s work, like Teen-ager’s Room, Johnson County, Kansas, highlights cultural changes and multiculturalism across decades. It has been argued that much of Lau’s work is more akin to documentary than to just photography.

His website is pokchilau.com

Education Lau attended elementary school in Hong Kong at Tung Wah Benevolent elementary school. In 1964 he attended Ying Wah College where he first gained an interest in Photography. He intended on attending school in Canada at Ontario College of Art, but was unable to get admission. In 1971 he moved to California to attend Brooks Institute of Photography where he majored in commercial, industrial, and scientific photography. At the age of 26, he was a graduate student at the California Institute of the Arts.

Career He is a professional photographer who focuses on the Chinese diaspora in countries around the world. In addition to his professional photography career, Pok Chi Lau is also a professional educator. He started as an Assistant Professor in Department of Design at The University of Kansas in 1977. In the years that followed he continued on with The University of Kansas, becoming the Associate Professor in the Department of Design during 1983. In 2004 he earned the title of Professor in the Department of Design at the University. He retired in 2013 to become an Emeritus Professor and continues to do significant work in Cuba and Mexico.

Exhibitions Lau’s work has been shown widely in the United States and abroad, much more so in China since 2006. The current (2020) exhibition, Migration, is at the Yuezhong Museum of Historical Images in Shenzhen, China.