Zun Lee BIOGRAPHY

 

Dr. Zun Lee is an award-winning visual storyteller, physician, and educator based between Canada and the U.S. Born in Germany and having lived in several major American cities, his work explores everyday life in Black domestic spaces as sites of intimacy, belonging, and of erasure and displacement. 

Originally trained as a neuroscientist and later a management consultant, the 2020 Guggenheim Fellow initially focused on street photography and immersive photo-ethnographic projects on Black family life. His work challenges dominant representations, using everyday moments to examine identity and how meaning shifts as images circulate beyond their original context. 

Lee has expanded into archival work, social practice, and writing, focusing on the role of digital media in shaping representation and power. He addresses visual literacy, structural competency, as well as ethics and consent in a networked, surveilled world. 

He has exhibited and taught widely across North America and Europe, with work in global collections. His honours include a Guggenheim Fellowship (2020), Mellon Practitioner in Residence (2019), Knight Foundation Grant (2018), and Magnum Foundation Fellowship (2015).