It's not every day that you meet a DJ who's also an authority on U.S. policy in Iraq or one who can get you into a closed session at the UN and runs with the paparazzi at Fashion Week snapping photos of top models from their dressing rooms to the after-parties. United States diplomat by day, DJ and photographer by night (and the occasional afternoon), Ben Chang defies not only categorization, but also the very notion of a 24-hour day. After graduating from Georgetown in 1994, Chang joined the State Department and began a career in diplomacy. Stationed in Paris in the early 2000s, he started DJing at clubs and hanging out afterwards to "document" the scene with his camera. After a while, people started paying him for his late-night hobby and before long, he had a reputation in all three fields, each independent of the others. "I take all of these pursuits very seriously," says Chang. "And there are times when one doesn't know about the others."
With regular gigs at Beauty Bar and the Back Room in New York, Chang
says he loves being a DJ because of the interactivity with the crowd. As
a photographer, he loves seeing a fast-paced life through a viewfinder
and then freezing an instant of it. But his primary calling will always
be diplomacy. "I'm passionate about U.S. policy and representing it," he
says. "The least one can do is have a good explanation."
David Alm
Ben wears a jacket by Superfine and shirt by Paul Smith.
RSS