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.