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.

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Brian Van Lau (b. 1996, Honolulu, HI) is a self-taught Vietnamese American photographer based between Honolulu, HI, and Los Angeles, CA. His work often explores generational relationships, history, inheritance, and grief. His methods include connecting photographs of his own with other collected and appropriated materials. His first monograph, We’re Just Here for the Bad Guys, was published by Light Work in 2026. He is a 2025 Penumbra Workspace Artist-in-Residence, 2023 Aperture Portfolio Prize runner-up, a recipient of the 2024 Google x Aperture Creator Labs Photo Fund, a winner of the 2023 Innovate Grant, and a selected participant in the 2023 New York Portfolio Review. He has been shortlisted for the Hopper Prize and is the founder of Arcanite Pictures, an online platform and publisher dedicated to highlighting emerging artists. His work was most recently exhibited at the Hō‘ikeākea Gallery in Honolulu, HI, as part of Float On, curated by Phil Jung. Lau has lectured at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson, and Northwind Art School in Port Townsend, WA. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Vogue, and many more.