Robert Welsh has a sensibility for the day-to-day lives of people of modest means trying to make ends meet. This makes him able to discover and communicate the beauty, grace, and dignity of those he photographs.

Chinatown: Metaphor and Memory, an exhibit of images from his open-ended series of Chinatown in San Francisco, is featured in the Atelier Gallery of the Griffin Museum November 12 though January 10, 2010. The exhibit is courtesy of Tepper Takayama Fine Arts,. Boston.

An opening reception with the artist is November 12, 7 p.m. It is open to all. A members-only talk with Welsh discussing the exhibit is at 6:15 p.m.

The Chinatown portrayed in his photographs is permeated by memories from his childhood in Brighton, MA, and is a metaphor for the immigrant experience, despite variation in geographic or ethnic origins. It also recognizes and records the elements of Chinatown, San Francisco, and his wife’s Chinese and Chinese-American family, which echo his Irish-American roots. Preeminent are thrift, simplicity, loyalty, continuity, and family ties.

“We are honored that Robert Welsh has returned home to exhibit `Chinatown: Metaphor and Memory” where he was shaped in his youth by the streets of Boston,” says Paula Tognarelli, executive director of the Griffin Museum of Photography. “Welsh’s work eloquently contemplates the ancient Chinese traditions placed against a modern day backdrop.”

Welsh is essentially a self-taught professional photographer and master of black-and-white and color printing. He also has worked as a photojournalist, but his images – such as those featured in a New York Times travel section article on San Francisco – transcend the purely documentary.