Dr. David Dao, famous for being violently dragged off a United Airlines flight, is publishing a memoir.

Most adoption stories are about adoptive parents and their journeys, given that they are the only adults with the ability to tell their stories at the time of adoption.  ICAV is a platform for adult adoptees to tell their stories.

Philipp Rosler was born in Vietnam in 1973 and adopted by a German family.  Of all Vietnamese adoptees, he is the only one I know who has chosen to go into politics and rising to #2 in his home country is pretty amazing.

My favorite medium for the consumption of photographs is the photographer-authored photobook.  At their best, these photobooks provide photographers the best means to communicate a single vision or idea about a specific topic.  It should be noted that (i) many important photographers like Diane Arbus, Dorothea Lange, and W. Eugene Smith did not create their own photobooks so aren't on this list, and (ii) my taste in photobooks is highly influenced by what I was exposed to and learned from Chirs Killip.  One of my goals for the new year is to explore photobooks from a more diverse set of photographers.

*The Decisive Moment by Henri Cartier-Bresson (1952)
*The Americans by Robert Frank (1958)
*Brooklyn Gang by Bruce Davidson (1959)
*Die Deutschen by Rene Burri (1962)
*Vietnam Inc. (1971), Agent Orange (2004), Vietnam at Peace (2005) by Philip Jones Griffiths
*Gypsies by Josef Koudelka (1975)
*In Boksburg by David Goldblatt (1982)
*In Flagrante by Chris Killip (1988)
*Other Americas by Sebastiao Salgado (1985)

​Dorchester:  Refugee Stories is a follow-up to Mark F. Erickson's award-winning photobook Other Streets:  Scenes from a Life in Vietnam not Lived.  Erickson shares an intimate, rarely seen view of what life was like for the hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese who fled Vietnam and re-settled in the United States in the two decades after the end of the war.  Black-and-white photographs taken in Boston's largest Vietnamese community between 1991 and 1994 are centered around moments of family life, as well as capturing scenes of school, church, and community.  Erickson shares his own personal story in the preface, including the connection he "felt to those who, based upon their experiences, intrinsically understood and empathized with mine."

"I had the privilege of being taught by Eli Reed in school.  He went through so much bullshit as the only black member of Magnum Photos and in the wider industry as well.  He said that even though these institutions are white-dominated, and they are usually racist, don't let that stop you from doing your work.  If you let that stop you from doing your work, then they have already won." --Mary Kang

Between 1980 and 2000, the Vietnamese population in Dorchester increased from approximately 2,000 (1980 to 3,500 (1990) to over 10,000 (2000).  According to Boston Globe reports, regular violence during this period directed towards the refugees including fire bombings, car vandalization, and beatings--some fatal.  Of these, the most famous was by teenager Mark Wahlberg (Marky Mark) in 1998.