Benjamen Chinn, one of the few Chinese American photographers to live and artfully document street scenes in San Francisco Chinatown, has died. He was 87: Benjamen Chinn dies at 87; photographer documented San Francisco's Chinatown.
Often photographing from the doorway of his home in Chinatown, Chinn began training his camera on his neighborhood in the late 1930s, but his most productive years were from 1947-1949 while he was studying at what is now the San Francisco Art Institute.
He was considered an accomplished photographer, though his work had comparatively little public exposure during his lifetime. It wasn't until 2003 that Chinn received a major solo exhibition at the Chinese Historical Society of San Francisco. To see some of his photos, go here.