Artist Statement
I utilize photography to explore cultural landscapes. Places contain a complexity that reveals the marks of history and psychology in building, sky, construction and their interrelationships. I record themes of urban sprawl, sites of industrial activity, architectural infrastructures, and waterways. Combinations of conceptual order and practical chaos are present as I observe from a space located outside the area of activity. It is the intersection of human, climatic, and geographic realms that are contemplated in my photography.
Rona Chang was born in Chungli, Taiwan, a town that is famous for its spicy beef noodle soup. As a child she picked mulberry leaves for her pet silkworms while playing in the black sand pile at the construction site that was at the entrance to her cul-de-sac. At the age of seven, Rona emigrated with her mother and sister from Taiwan to Buffalo, NY, later moving to Queens, New York. In Queens her family moved almost every year. Rona spent many summers living with her father in Taiwan, taking Chinese calligraphy and painting lessons.
After receiving her BFA from The Cooper Union School of Art Rona worked as a photographer for the Asian Art Department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for nine years, where she photographed all of the Japanese woodblock prints, Indian paintings, and Chinese handscrolls in the collection. In 2007 she was an associate artist at the Atlantic Center of the Arts residency under the guidance of Thomas Struth. She is a recipient of En Foco's New Works #14 Fellowship. In 2011, she was a finalist for the Rome Prize and awarded a grant by Queens Council on the Arts with public funding from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs for her series Moving Forward, Standing Still. In 2012, Rona was named as a finalist for both the Sony World Photo Awards and the Renaissance Photography Award in London. Rona now lives between Queens and Western Pennsylvania, and travels often, attributing her desire to travel to her many childhood moves and her love for packing.
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