1951, is a Chinese-American photographer and educator known for his photographs of African-American communities in the southern United States. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he studied photography at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under Minor White, receiving a BS in 1972, and earned an MFA from Yale University in 1975, where he studied with Walker Evans.

In 1982 he became a professor of art at the University of Tennessee, where he founded the university’s photography program. During the early 1980s he undertook extensive photographic journeys through the Deep South, producing thousands of images of people, landscapes, and towns. From 1983 to 1989 he created a large body of work focusing primarily on the lives of low-income African-American communities. His approach emphasizes portraying individuals with dignity and distinct personalities rather than reinforcing stereotypes.

His photographs have been exhibited at institutions including the Chrysler Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, and are held in major collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, and the National Gallery of Art. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in recognition of his work.

Photobooks form a significant part of his practice. His monograph Baldwin Lee (2022), edited by Barney Kulok, was shortlisted for the Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation Book of the Year Award. He retired from teaching in 2014 and is professor emeritus at the University of Tennessee.

Reference
Biography text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), English edition. Retrieved February 8, 2026.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldwin_Lee