As part of the Collective Views: A Symposium on Photography in Toronto, join us for a keynote presentation with artists Morris Lum and Pok Chi Lau in conversation with Lily Cho to discuss their work which spans from the 1970s to today, the evolution of Chinatown communities in Toronto and beyond, and the broader visual legacies of the Chinese diaspora. 

The symposium is co-presented on the occasion of Collective Visions: Celebrating 25 Years of Photography at the AGO and Jeff Wall Photographs 1984–2023 at MOCA. Learn more about the Symposium here.

View the full program including presentation descriptions and speaker bios.

Pok Chi Lau (b. 1950, British Hong Kong) is a documentary photographer whose work explores the global Chinese diaspora. He came to the United States in 1969 and earned a BFA from the Brooks Institute of Photography (1975) and an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts (1977). Lau began teaching at the University of Kansas in 1977 and was named Professor Emeritus in 2013. For more than five decades, Lau has documented Chinese communities across the Americas, China, Cuba, Malaysia, Myanmar, West Africa, and Vietnam. As a member of the Overseas Chinese community, he photographs from within, capturing intimate domestic spaces and everyday environments that reveal identity, migration, belief, memory, and cultural continuity. His portraits and interiors reflect both personal histories and broader social change. Lau has held over 60 solo exhibitions and participated in more than 90 group exhibitions worldwide. He is the author of seven books and has traveled to 47 countries in pursuit of his work.

Morris Lum is a Trinidadian-born photographer and artist whose work explores the complex hybridity of the Chinese-Canadian experience through photography, form, and documentary practices. Lum’s work has been exhibited and screened across Canada and the United States. Currently, he is focused on a cross–North American project examining the transformation of Chinatowns and capturing the evolving architectural and cultural landscapes of these communities. Morris is an Assistant Professor in the Visual Studies Department at the University of Toronto’s Daniels Faculty of Architecture Landscape and Design.

Lily Cho is an Associate Professor of English at the York University. Her writing on photography includes recent publications on the work of Justine Kurland, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, and Morris Lum.