Wing Young Huie

From Frogtown: Photographs and Conversations in an Urban Neighborhood (1996) by Wing Young Huie

A photograph can be as much a piece of fiction as it is a document of the real world—these realms are separate yet somehow complicitous. Indeed, the most compelling photographs shed light on reality in much the way good fiction does.

Biographical Notes

Birth: May 3, 1955, Duluth, Minnesota

Photographer Wing Young Huie earned a B.A. in journalism from the University of Minnesota in 1979. Huie became a full time professional photographer in 1989 and is most well-known for his photographs documenting people in a culturally diverse and changing urban landscape. Several of his projects focus on Minneapolis and St. Paul neighborhoods. Huie’s photographs have been exhibited nationally and internationally in St. Paul, Minneapolis, Chicago, Westport, New York City, West Palm Beach, Budapest, and Rotterdam. Four books based on Huie’s photography projects have been published and are listed in the Selected Works section below.

Wing Young Huie is the recipient of several fellowships, grants, and awards including the Minnesota Historical Society Research Grant (1993); Rivers Merging, Asian American Renaissance, Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program (1994); Minnesota State Arts Board Cultural Collaborations Grant (1994, 1998); McKnight Photography Fellowship (1994, 1999); Bush Artist Fellowship (1996); Minnesota 2000 Photo Documentary Project (1997); Forecast Exhibition Grant (1994, 1999); Star Tribune “Artist of the Year” (2000); Committee on Urban Environment Award (2000); US Bank Sally Irvine Ordway Vision Award (2001); St. Paul Companies Leadership Initiatives in Neighborhoods (LIN) Award (2001); City Pages Best Book by a Local Author (2002); and the Emerging Leaders Spotlight Award from the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs (2006).

Selected Works
The titles below link to the catalog record in MnPALS, the Minnesota Historical Society’s library catalog. Please click on your browser's back button to return.

• The University Avenue Project: The Language of Urbanism: A Six-mile Photographic Inquiry
• Looking For Asian America: An Ethnocentric Tour by Wing Young Huie
• Lake Street USA
• Frogtown: Photographs and Conversations in an Urban Neighborhood

Additional Resources

Minnesota Historical Society Library Links

• Search PALS Catalog for author - Searches for works by this author in the Minnesota Historical Society library
• Minnesota Historical Society Visual Resources Database - Images by and of Wing Young Huie
• Northern Lights Episode #372 - Interview with Wing Young Huie
• Oral History Interviews of the Asians in Minnesota Oral History Project, 1978-1982 by Sarah R. Mason and Joyce Yu

Web Links

• Wing Young Huie - Gallery Website
• mn original - Segment from the television show, mn original on PBS
• mnartists.org - Biography, awards, exhibitions, publications, and images
• Walker Art Center - Biography, exhibition information, articles, and images
• Minnesota Public Radio - Articles, video, and audio
• “Wing Young Huie” - Interview about the 2004 exhibition, 9 Months in America: An Ethnocentric Tour
• Wing Young Huie: The University Avenue Project - Articles, video, and images
• Minnesota Monthly - Articles
• Asian American Press - Articles