Walter Lewis Jr. / Black & Yellow Project

Walter Lewis Jr. is the mastermind behind the well-regarded Black & Yellow Project. The project is a visual showcase of the diversity within the Blasian (Black and Asian) segment of the mixed Asian community.

Walter has spent countless hours the past few years traveling throughout the United States photographing individuals to add to his project and, in the process, has amassed a large interest and following.

HalfKorean.com had a chance to discuss Walter’s background and his Black & Yellow Project.

What’s your mix?
I’m half African-American and Korean.

Where were you born and raised?
I was born in Seoul, Korea and raised in Army posts due to the fact of being an Army child. But I call Lawton/Ft. Sill, Oklahoma home because that’s where I spent majority of my childhood.

What is your current occupation?
I’m a civilian with the Air Force working as the Command Fuels & Fire Protection Engineer. I also serve in the Army Reserves as a Financial Management Officer.

Do you speak Korean?
Unfortunately I do not. My mother wanted us to learn English first so we wouldn’t be confused. And by the time we got older, my parents were separated.

What was your mixed Korean experience like growing up?
It was good and bad. Since my dad was in the Army, we were on post majority of the time and was around a lot of mixed kids, especially half Koreans. I would love when we would sit down as a family and eat! Growing up as a kid, we ate traditionally, with the small square table on the floor. Would sleep on the yo (요 – Korean bed) in the living room all the time. I wish I was able to meet more of my Korean side of the family growing up, but all of them were in Korea. I was actually able to meet them for the first time when they came to our wedding. The bad was being teased as a kid due to the fact of my tighter, slanted eyes. I was mocked, made fun of, called derogatory Asian names.

Have you been back to Korea recently?
I have not been since being born but I’m going next month! I would actually love to live in Korea for a year or two, learn more about the culture and take it all in.

Now lets talk about your Black & Yellow Project. What motivated you and when did you start it?
I officially started the project in March 2011. When I first joined Korean and Black Club on Facebook, I started seeing more and more of Korean and African-Americans. How we looked alike, but yet still have distinct differences. How the African-American or Korean gene would dominate or how one sibling would look more Asian while the other looked more African-American. Then I opened it up to everyone of ½ African-American and ½ Asian descent. That’s something I wanted to capture and share with the world. The wide range and dynamics of the culture and physical characteristics.

Is the project something you do by yourself or does anybody assist you?
I do the project myself. My wife will assist whenever she can, but she mainly helps me with selecting photos.

How supportive has your wife and family been of your project?
They have been very supportive. My wife, when she was my girlfriend in college, actually was the one who always told me that I should know more about my culture. So when I decided to do this project, she has helped me out a lot with ideas, constructive criticism, and picture selection.

How do you go about selecting people to feature?
There are two phases to the project. The first phase is capturing photos of people, which everyone is welcome to participate. The second phase is the selection and editing process, which is the hard part. I have photographed over 350 Blasians and I can only use so many photos. So I will have to decide which photos are the best and flow together. But I will try to display all of the photos on my website.

Has there been a specific person/s whom you have photographed that you felt was most intriguing/interesting?
That’s a tough one. I can’t think of just a person or persons, I have had so many people from all walks of life who has brought something different to the table. Everyone has contributed to the project in their own way.

What kind of feedback has the project received?
I’ve gotten great feedback from people, thanking me for doing the project because they haven’t seen anything like this before. My original intent was to take photos for one year of about 25-50 Blasians. But word of mouth and social network allowed me to work with people all across the US. If it wasn’t for the people who trusted the vision I had for the project, it wouldn’t be possible.

What would you say the percentage of mixed Koreans have been part of the project?
About 50%-60% of the project are of mixed Koreans. The other 20%-30% are mixed Filipinos, with the rest being Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, Thai, Vietnamese, & Cambodian.

What would you like to accomplish with the project and what are some goals you have?
As Blasians, we have so many similarities, yet distinct differences. We also have different dynamics in the aspect of the life and culture we were raised and brought up in. That’s something I wanted to capture with this project. The near term goal is to finish taking photos for the project by July 2014 and spend the rest of 2014 finalizing the finished product. I have a few more cities I would like to visit before I end the project. The long term goal is to get the images published.

As for getting the project published, any idea how far in the future that might be?
My goal is to start trying to get it published or acknowledged by the end of 2014 or beginning of 2015.

Is photography a hobby of yours? Did you take courses or learn on your own?
Photography started out as a hobby. I started using my Dad’s old Canon 35mm film camera. I’m a self taught photographer, everything I’ve learned was by watching tutorial videos from my favorite photographer and reading. Then it was all about shooting, shooting, shooting to familiarize myself with my camera. While I was deployed, that’s all I did was take photos to perfect my craft. And I’m still learning to this day.

Anything else you’d like to share?
I’m married to the former Erin Shirley of Plano, Texas and we have a daughter, Laine (three years old).

Any final words to the mixed Korean community?
It’s been great to come across so many mixed Koreans the past three years. I truly didn’t know much of my Korean culture outside of food. Being raised my Dad, I didn’t have the luxury of experiencing it. I’ve learned more about the Korean culture in the last three years than the previous 30 years. I definitely look forward to the learning process and meeting many more mixed Koreans out there.

We want to thank Walter for sharing his experiences and project with us. We always love seeing people doing things that promote awareness and recognition from within our mixed Korean/Asian community! We wish him much success and look forward to seeing his work published!