Thursday, May 7, 2026 | In-Person 7:00PM | RSVP
WE’RE JUST HERE FOR THE BAD GUYS
Book Signing and Presentation with Brian van Lau
Join Light Work and Penumbra Foundation to celebrate the release of We’re Just Here for the Bad Guys, the debut monograph by 2025 Workspace resident Brian Van Lau, published by Light Work. The evening will feature a conversation between the artist and Light Work’s Director, Dan Boardman, followed by a book signing.
We’re Just Here for the Bad Guys chronicles Brian Van Lau’s relationship with his estranged father. Lau’s father was absent during his childhood due to his incarceration. After his release, he rebuilt his life in Vietnam, remarried, and gradually disappeared from Lau’s life. Nearly a decade later, Lau traveled to Vietnam following his father’s sudden illness, and learned of his terminal cancer. During their final week together, they collaborated on a photographic project that documented his father’s unsuccessful path toward recovery. After his father’s passing, Lau returned to his hometown in Hawai‘i seeking closure, uncovering hidden correspondence that revealed previously unknown parts of his father’s life. Entrusted with dispersing his father’s ashes across O‘ahu, the artist began working with his grandparents to reconstruct this fragmented family history through photography.
Van Lau’s project has been featured in Aperture, The Washington Post, W Magazine, and It’s Nice That.
We're Just Here for the Bad Guys
Brian Van Lau
Published by Light Work
ISBN: 978-1-945725-43-2
Extent: 132 pages
Binding: Hardbound
Publication Date: Spring 2026
About the artist:
Brian Van Lau (b. 1996, Honolulu, HI) is a self-taught Vietnamese American photographer based between Honolulu, HI and Los Angeles, CA. His work explores generational relationships, inheritance, history, and grief. He was a 2025 Penumbra Workspace Artist-in-Residence, a 2023 Aperture Portfolio Prize runner-up, and a recipient of the 2024 Google x Aperture Creator Labs Photo Fund, among other honors. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Vogue, and others.
About Light Work:
Light Work’s mission is to provide direct support to emerging and under-recognized visual artists working in photography and related lens based media through artist residencies, exhibitions, projects, and publications. Light Work has published over 200 issues of Contact Sheet, plus over fifty exhibition catalogues for the Robert B. Menschel Photography Gallery and a number of special project books. Contact Sheet is one of the longest-running art photography publications in the world that has showcased contemporary photographers since 1977. It features artists who have participated in Light Work’s Artist-in-Residence and exhibition programs.
About Penumbra Workspace A-I-R:
The Penumbra Workspace Program benefits three US-based emerging artists with access to time, facilities, critical and technical support, and honoraria. The extension of the program ranges from six to eight weeks depending on the time requested by the selected artists. Participants have liberal access to the workspace facilities. They are expected to use their time to pursue their own projects: researching, photographing, scanning, printing, working on an exhibition or editing a book.
Any changes to the program will be announced online. All lectures and other events are held at Penumbra Foundation at 7pm. This event is Free to the public.
36 E. 30th St. New York, NY, 10016 (between Madison Ave. & Park Ave. South
(917) 288-0343 | rsvp@penumbrafoundation.org | penumbrafoundation.org