Dong Lin was born in Beijing in 1957. After photographing the student demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in 1989, he moved to San Francisco. In 1977, he received his MFA degree in Photography at Academy of Art University in San Francisco. From 1999 to 2004, he was a Visiting Scholar at The Graduate School of Journalism, UC Berkeley. He now works on international expeditions to such countries as Burma, Madagascar and China. He is the publisher of Visuals Press.