在美华人13年蜗居生活写真

屈联西

　　Thomas Holton, born to a Chinese mother and an American father, began his photographic look at a family living in New York City’s Chinatown neighborhood as a way to feel more connected to his Chinese heritage. Holton met the Lam family in 2003, and much like the 350-square-foot apartment in which they lived, he envisioned creating a small-scale documentary about their lives in a tenement building on Ludlow Street. Thirteen years later, Holton’s work has become a book, The Lams of Ludlow Street, published this month by Kehrer Verlag.


　　摄影师托马斯·霍尔顿，母亲是中国人，父亲是美国人。为了更好地感受中国情怀，他开始用相机记录下住在纽约唐人街的一户华人的生活。2003年，他认识了住在30多平米蜗居的林家人，并为他们拍摄了长达十三年的生活写真。马上，霍尔顿也要将他的摄影集出版成书，名为“The Lams of Ludlow Street”（《律路街上的林家人》，Kehrer Verlag出版社出版）。


　　When he began working on the series, Holton said he was thrilled to simply get behind “the proverbial closed door and meet a neighborhood family who welcomed me into their lives.”


　　当他开始做这一件事时，霍尔顿说他非常兴奋能有机会去了解“这紧闭的门背后的故事，遇到了欢迎我进入他们生活的一家人。”


　　The earliest images focus on the family and their physical surroundings. But as he got to know them and understand their routines, picking the kids up from school and sharing meals, he became more observant and deliberate about what he photographed.


　　最初的照片聚焦于这家人和他们的生活环境。但是随着深入了解，他知道了他们的日常，接孩子放学回家，一起吃饭，霍尔顿也变得更善于观察和思考他的拍摄对象。




　　Passport Photos, 2003.


　　《护照照片的展示》（摄于2003年）




　　Bath Time, 2004.


　　《洗澡时间》（摄于2004年）




　　Chinese Soap Opera, 2004.


　　《中国电视剧》（摄于2004年》


　　“Once this more intimate and personal aspect of our relationship developed, I became less and less interested in their small apartment and became much more curious about their family life, the relationships with one another and what was happening in their lives,” he wrote via email. “As a result, my images changed too; I feel they became much more nuanced and subtle.”


　　“当我们的关系变得亲密之后，我开始对他们居住的公寓不那么感兴趣了，我更加好奇他们的家庭生活、彼此之间的关系、他们生活中所发生的事情，”他在邮件中写道。“因此，我拍的照片变化也很大；我感觉它们越来越侧重细微的情感的表达。”


　　How Holton interacted with the Lams changed as well. He said part of that happened when he took “creative pauses” that would last a year or more. He continued to see the Lams but felt the pause was important to allow the Lams’ story to evolve. It also informed the editing process of what became The Lams of Ludlow Street.


　　霍尔顿与林家人的互动方式也随之改变。他说，他开始“停顿拍摄”，每次间歇可能会长达一年甚至更久。他继续关注着林家人，但他相信“停顿拍摄”会让这家人的故事发展得更自然些。他对照片的选择编辑过程也写进了《律路街上的林家人》一书中。


　　“Editing the photographs down to a manageable number was daunting, but I had always been my own worst critic, so I kept a pretty tight edit as I kept working,” he wrote.


　　“从大量的照片编辑出精华是一项具有挑战性的任务，但是我一直对自己最挑剔，因此我工作时候对照片的编辑一直相当严格。”霍尔顿写道。




　　Spring Break, 2010.


　　《春假》(摄于2010年)




　　Bored, 2011.


　　《烦恼》(摄于2011年)




　　Napping After Work, 2012.


　　《工作后的小憩》(摄于2012年)




　　A Father’s Touch, 2012.


　　《父亲的碰触》(摄于2012年)


　　Holton said that although he became a “strange uncle who always has a camera” to the Lams, he never quite made the same connection with Chinatown.


　　霍尔顿说，虽然对于林家人来说，自己成为了一个“背着摄像头的怪叔叔”，但是唐人街也成了他心中的牵绊。


　　“I am still looked upon as an outsider or visitor because I still do not fluently speak Chinese or live there,” he wrote. “I don’t think that by simply visiting the Lams for all this time gives me an insight into what it must be like to leave one’s home country and to start fresh in a foreign land to begin a family.”


　　“我一直以来都是一个局外人，是一个看客，因为我仍然不能说流利的汉语，我也不住在这里。”霍尔顿写道。“长久以来，对林家人的简单拜访，并没有真正让我体会到，离开祖国到异国他乡开展新生活，是一种什么样感觉。”


　　Holton is a working parent who teaches photography full time at Trinity School in Manhattan and said he feels his work speaks to life’s challenges, regardless of race or religion.


　　霍尔顿目前已经是一名父亲，在纽约曼哈顿的私立高中Trinity School（三一学校）工作，全职教授孩子们摄影知识。他说，他感觉自己工作是在讲述生活中的挑战，无关种族和信仰。


　　“I think the work has resonated with many people is because even though the work is about a specific family in a specific city and neighborhood, people feel that they can relate to the story because it is about life and making the best with what you have,” he said. “Life is full of surprises and cannot be