Through her lens, Maï captures the beauty of a creative, singular youth, free from dominant norms and codes, that proudly expresses its origins.
We are pleased to welcome artist Maï Lucas for her third solo exhibition, “New York State of Life,” at the Speerstra Gallery Paris. A French-Vietnamese photographer based in Paris, Maï has spent over thirty years exploring vibrant urban cultures around the world, with a particular focus on Paris and New York.
Her work chronicles the birth of hip-hop culture in France before she relocated to the United States to immerse herself in and document this movement firsthand. There, she captured the culture carried by African-American and Latin-Caribbean communities in New York's working-class neighborhoods, from the Bronx to Harlem.
Through her lens, Maï captures the beauty of a creative, singular youth, free from dominant norms and codes, that proudly expresses its origins.
Her photographs, imbued with rare sensitivity, reveal the energy of a generation in search of identity, born on the margins and driven by the desire to exist differently. They mark an era when the street invented its own language and style, before mainstream fashion appropriated it.
From the very beginning, Maï Lucas has made photography a language of encounter and emotion. Her work serves as both sociological testimony and artistic creation, which speaks of freedom, humanity and questions self-affirmation. Internationally recognized, she occupies an important place in contemporary photography.
The portraits on display, taken between 1990 and 2010, are mainly taken from her second monograph, “All Eyes On Me”, published by Patrick Frey edition.