Meet Lucien Liu | Artist | Curator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lucien Liu and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lucien, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I was in the digital marketing world before I started my career as an artist. After 3 years being a manager working on media plans, I had to review that career to see what is the most important thing I want to keep doing. I figured I need more time to “create art” instead of “execute art plans,” so decided to move to San Francisco from Beijing for an artist career.

I picked the Bay Area because of its diversity and inclusion. It has been 8 years since I moved here including 3 years MFA program in photography. So far so good!
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Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My projects focus more on self expression. I photograph the common things in my life as a process of exploring “why I am so interested them” by keeping revisiting, rephotographing, and reprinting them. That’s why in one project, you will see some elements keep showing up like trees, leaves, birds, etc. I think this the correct way to explore my long-term uncertainty about growth and time. It doesn’t have to have an answer. The process of seeking is the most important part.

I think one of the biggest challenges is, I have to accept the reality of “there is no answer eventually.” It took more a longtime to realize it and accept it. The sweet moment is I convinced myself to it.

Of course there are a lot of technique issues. I self taught the Bromoil process. It is a photographic printing process from 1900s. The issue was, it’s hard to get the supplies today from the original formula of the process, so I had to start over to do a lot of tests to create my own formulae. I am glad I figured out and used it on my “Petrichor” project. The “eureka” moment was pretty sweet!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I think I may take them to a spot surrounded by trees but still has the view of the ocean, then have a great conversation about art practice and books.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I am lucky to have so many people helped and is helping me to build up my career. I want to shout out to PhotoAlliance (https://www.photoalliance.org), a Bay Area based non=profit focusing on contemporary photography through hosting artist talks, portfolio reviews, and exhibitions.

When I started my MFA program here, my photography style was totally on street photography and started to get into the world of documentary photography and editorial photography. In 2017, my mentor Connie Begg introduced a lecture hosted by PhotoAlliance featuring artists Theresa Ganz, Klea Mckenna, and Meghann Riepenhoff. They talked about something like “cameraless photography,” and I was so confused by the concept but totally hooked by the beauty of their works. I told my mentor Connie I want to switch my direction to this “cameraless photography,” then I spent 2 more years in darkroom studying historical and contemporary photographic processes which I am still doing it today.

Back to PhotoAlliance, I would say that lecture in May, 2017 changed my career. It lit up another road for me to explore a different possibility in the world of photography and gave me a very open minded community to talk about photographic art. I joined the team of PhotoAlliance in 2020 after I graduated and serving as the Operation Manager till now. I believe this is the right way: learn from the community, be a part of the community, and benefit the community.

Website: https://www.lucienliu.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liuxp/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucienliu/

Image Credits
Portrait photo by Heather Snider Artwork by Lucien Liu