Biography of Mr. Wellington Lee(Guang Ming Liang).
Mr. Guang Ming Liang(Mr. Wellington Lee) was a famous Chinese American photographer, and the founder of "The Photographic Society of New York."
Mr. Guang Ming Liang(Mr. Wellington Lee) was born on May 12,1918 in Kaiping city, GuangDong province of China . At the age of 17, using identification papers under "Wellington Lee" he was able to ascertain his passage to the United States under this new identity and settle in New York.
He graduated in 1943 from what is now known as the New York School of Art and Design with a degree in photography. During World War II, he was a military photographer, and received a commendation for his work. Following the war, he worked for the Jons Fashion Studio in New York for a few years.
In 1948, he won a large cash award for his first-place color photograph in "Popular Photography" magazine's first international competition. His work was chosen from a pool of more than 52,000 entries. Using the $5,000 grand prize he opened his own portrait studio situated in Chinatown, the Wellington Lee Studio, which operated for over twenty-five years until Wellington himself decided to retire in 1977.
In 1949, together with six other photographers he founded "The Photographic Society of New York."
His pictorial involvement began before World War II and continued into the 1990's. During this period, he was ranked in the top ten exhibitors of the world more than fifty times, showed a total of 14,000 monochrome, color prints, and stereo slides. He received more than a thousand trophies, plaques, medals, and other citations for his photographic work at international salons and contests.
Solo exhibitions of his photographs were seen at the Smithsonian Institute in 1955 and showcased at several hundreds of camera clubs from New York to Asia.
In the 47 years from 1953 to 1999, 67 times he entered United States Photographic Society (PSA) certified by the Salon as a whole score.
Lee involved himself deeply with numerous photographic organizations. Beginning in 1952, he served for forty years as chairman of various committees for the Photographic Society of America. The Photographic Society of America and England’s Royal Photographic Society both awarded him fellowship status in the mid-1950s. In addition, more than fifty clubs worldwide gave him honorary fellowships and memberships. He judged many of the major salons in America.
His work is extensive, with unique concepts and varied expressions, was considered by many to be fascinating. His high-contrast work, depicting a variety of subjects, usually took the form of "Addacolor" prints. "Addacolor" is a process he invented that turned black-and-white negatives into color images resembling woodcut prints with bas-relief effects, and is the paragon of many international photographers.
After retirement he remained photographically active. Often invited to serve as contest judges, he published "Artistic Photography." In late 1987, "The Photographic Society of New York" held for him in New York a selection of his 50 years of photographic work, displayed in 80 frames, his brainchild of 50 years. Famous photographer Jingshan Lang was in person at the ribbon-cutting.
In early 2001, Guang Ming Liang accepted invitations from Kaiping hometown Photography Association where he served as Honorary President.
He passed away in New York, on May 31, 2001.