Hot Shots : Andrea Chu
Artist Statement
My first experience with a camera was when I was 13 and I stole my brother's camera to document a day of skateboarding with my friends. Though the subject of my work has changed, this sense of freedom and whimsy continue as strong themes and my friends and family remain my greatest sources of inspiration. The images I have submitted are part of an ongoing series of my closest childhood friend, Candy, whose two daughters, Vicki and Annie, were born when we were still in high school. I have been documenting the girls' lives since their birth. They are now young teenagers around the age I was when I first met their parents and I find their changes and entry into adulthood to be of endless fascination. For me, the series reflect a time of change, the mystery of incipient womanhood and a playfulness tied to that fleeting bridge between childhood and adulthood.
Biography
Andrea Chu currently lives in Brooklyn New York with her husband and 7-month old son. She grew up in Palo Alto, California and lived San Francisco until her mid-twenties. Chu moved to New York to complete a BFA in Photography at Pratt Institute, where she refined her color printing skills. Her first editorial job after graduating was a fashion feature that she conceived of and shot for Paper Magazine. Chu was chosen as one of PDN’s emerging 30 in 2006. Her works were also featured in American Photography 23, Magenta Foundation- Flash Forward 2007, and Jen Bekman's Hey Hot Shot in the Spring of 2006. She has done editorial projects for for Bon Appetit, Fortune Small Business, The New Yorker and Milk (Japan), and the now defunct Cookie.