Benjamen Chinn, Chinatown Series

After WWII, Benjamen Chinn returned to San Francisco and was accepted into a new fine art photography program at the California School of Fine Arts (CSFA), now the San Francisco Art Institute. In this program, Ansel Adams and Minor White groomed the next generation of fine art photographers in the “West Coast School of Photography.”  Lecturers included Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham, Lisette Model and Dorothea Lange. During this time, Chinn began photographing San Francisco’s Chinatown. With a non-judgmental eye and a natural curiosity about people, Chinn made intimate portraits of everyday life in the post-war era. His photos display an intuitive sense of form and movement and he credited his development to his CSFA painting instructors Dorr Bothwell and Richard Diebenkorn. The photos, many of which were taken from his doorstep, create a unique portrait of Chinatown from an insider’s point of view.

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About Benjamen Chinn

Born in San Francisco's Chinatown on April 30th, 1921, Benjamen Chinn was the ninth of twelve children. He was introduced to photography at the age of ten by his older brother, John, who taught him how to develop and print photos. Together the two assembled a darkroom in the basement of the family home. Throughout his photographic career, Benjamen, an engineer by training, would become known for his skills in the darkroom. During World War II, he served in the Pacific as an aerial and public relations photographer for the U.S. Army Air Corps. After the war, Ben returned to San Francisco and was accepted into a new fine art photography program at the California School of Fine Arts (CSFA), now the San Francisco Art Institute. In this program, Ansel Adams and Minor White groomed the next generation of fine art photographers in the “West Coast School of Photography.” Lecturers included Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham, Lisette Model and Dorothea Lange. Benjamen was particularly close to Cunningham, and through the end of her life he would often bring dim sum to her house for their lunches together. During this time he began photographing San Francisco’s Chinatown capturing intimate portraits of everyday life in the post-war era. His photos display an intuitive sense of form and movement and he credited his development to his CSFA painting instructors Dorr Bothwell and Richard Diebenkorn. In 1953, Benjamen went to work for the U.S. Sixth Army Photo Lab in the Presidio of San Francisco. He had a thirty-one year career at the army photo lab where he rose to Chief of Photographic Services and later, Chief of Training Aids & Services Division. He continued to travel with his camera, photographing the Tarahumara Indians in Copper Canyon, Mexico, and the indigenous peoples of Teotitlán. After retirement, Benjamin volunteered his time at a neighborhood photo store in Chinatown and spent his days developing customers’ photos on the one-hour machine. Ben lived in the family house in Chinatown until February, 2008, when failing health necessitated a move to an assisted-living facility. He died on April 25, 2009.