THIS IS SOME OF MY PERSONAL PHOTOGRAPHY.

Real-Life Hong Kong Cinema

Living between two worlds; that's how I felt growing up. My parents are immigrants from Hong Kong who came to the states to attend university. Though I was born in New York, I've found myself caught between two vastly different cultures. The majority of my family still lives in Hong Kong, and I have been back to visit over twenty times. But every time I return to the states, my trips feel like a dream.

I grew up watching old Hong Kong movies with my cousin, and sometimes those films still have an influence on how I see Hong Kong through a camera—a series of beautiful still images. Neon-filled and completely chaotic with an ancient foundation of my family's heritage and traditions.

The following photos were taken on my most recent trip to Hong Kong last year.

Cuba: A Lesson in Celebrating the Mundane

I've been lucky enough to visit Cuba twice—once traveling alone, right before the U.S. embargo was lifted, and the second time this past October 2016 with a friend.

On my first trip alone, since I know Spanish, I was able to chat with a lot of the locals. I ended up befriending a fifteen-year-old girl named Estefani. She saw me taking photos one day and we started chatting. She told me in Spanish, "Please don't be one of those photographers who only takes photos of children with flies on their faces. Or only takes photos of the fancy new developments. That's not the real Havana; that's not my real home."

Her simple request had a huge impact on me and made me think about how we see things as tourists; seeing difference is the easiest thing to do—whether it's something that makes us uncomfortable like trash on the streets or something that we consider "exotic" like iconic Cuban architecture. But when you take the time to look closer, you can see beauty in the mundane. That's what this collection of photos focuses on.