In 2010, I began to photograph the Lams again after a five-year break. While I always maintained contact, I never photographed them again until I felt the urge to tell this new story. Their family has gone through some usual and unusual circumstances, which changed the tone and atmosphere in a heavier, lonelier direction. I felt compelled to capture the new reality in their lives because ultimately reality is often unscripted and truthfully quite messy.

At the height of the recession in 2008, Steven lost his job and temporarily moved out of Ludlow Street. Shirley trained to become a home care nursing aide and began working with a 102-year-old Chinese woman (“Granny”) on Henry Street. With all three Lam children in school, Shirley devoted most of her time to work and basically lived with Granny and her 80-year-old son, Bo. To stay close to her mother, Cindy lived there too while Steven and the boys still lived on Ludlow Street.

Where I went on my weekly visits was determined by where Shirley was making dinner for the kids. It was increasingly rare to share a meal at Ludlow Street, and we ate at Granny’s home, her son Bo’s home, or at Shirley’s friend Nutmeg’s home, with Steven often absent. Therefore these images were made in several different Chinatown apartments. A few hours after dinner, family members would split up and return to their respective sleeping quarters, either Ludlow or Henry Street.

The family I photographed earlier seemed broken up physically and emotionally. The parents were no longer a married couple but technically still living together at Ludlow Street. For the children, schoolwork became more time consuming and difficult, and playtime was over. In addition, all three Lam children are now teenagers, which brings its own complex emotional and physical issues.

As we all age, our lives take unexpected twist and turns. “The Lams of Ludlow Street II: 5 Years Later” shows how one family’s life is continuing to unfold in a 350 square foot apartment in New York City’s Chinatown.