WELCOME TO OUR INCLUSIVE SPACE

Welcome!

My name is Christina (she/her), and I’m the creator of this site.

My dream with this space was to invite the ether into the real world, in the form of safely held and loving creative space unlike anything I’d seen before in the photographic world — nonjudgemental, genuinely inclusive, and patient, aligned, alchemizing, healing. After 3 years of intensive care, this idea has been born into the website you see before you!

The Short Version (est. read time: 5-6 min)

My intention for this space is to share my story, background, and pillars of value for infinite impression, legacy. I’m a daughter, younger sister, and mother to two furry creatures; born and raised in Northern California, I found my calling early in life through the Arts, though it was never an “easy” ride…

Experience:

• currently serving the San Francisco Bay Area (California)

• 5+ years photography experience

• 2+ years tarot reading experience

• anticipating movement to Asia in November 2022, where I will be living in Hong Kong and eventually studying trauma-informed yoga in a 200-Hour YTT

Intersectional identities

With Chinese and Vietnamese heritage, I was born and raised in America and bridged the cultural gaps growing up, finding my own voice, unique expression, center, and holistic wellbeing through it all. During 2020 through 2022, I found myself as a Chinese and Vietnamese American exploring my queerness, entrepreneurial passions and creative pursuits, and standing up for myself, giving voice and standing in resistance after experiences of my own to the thought leadership movements that were displacing and eradicating non-white voices. In these last few years, my healing has expanded to include intentions of holding inclusive space for non-white and neurodivergent folks. I deeply value holistic wellness and health, self-expression for empowerment and a shift from the victim mentality, and healing through various modalities for the greatest good of communal health above all — and it’s my intention that this is reflected in all of the work that I do and space that I facilitate, hold, and share, with softness, empathy, compassion, and passion.

Dreams: Our dreams and desires? We have them for a reason. Apart of my intended work with you is to discover what that inner voice is whispering to you: visually, creatively, or subconsciously. Together, I hope to uncover and hold sacred those eggs, gems, and seeds of wisdom, confidence, and deep knowing — to return to a space of wholeness and ease in our process together.

In systemized education, I have a background in Nutrition and Dietetics and a B.A. in Communication Studies from California State University, Long Beach. Long Beach in all of its diversity is my second home. I fell in love with diversified culture, and thus, followed my interests of interpersonal communication, conflict resolution, and intercultural communication! I specialized in Mediation, which is the practice of holding and facilitating space for conflict resolution and agreement-making, and coached individuals in public speaking — which is very much a confidence-building space! All of these interests allowed me to deepen my heartfelt service to humanity, interpersonal connection, and revealing the inner and true self through carefully crafted, lovingly held, and exuberantly expressed self-expression: what I see as the sharing of your message and self as a divine art form.

How did I get into photography? It began as a hobby and creative outlet for me — and my dream is to make it my full-time career. At 18, I first shot street style photography on an iPhone for my best friend in college (it wasn’t even the latest version; we had no real equipment and were doing so for fun, for her blog as a Fashion & Merchandising student). When traction began picking up and our own creative centers sparked and flourished, her and I were having so much fun creating, that this became an emotional release and perspective-enlightener for me — before it ultimately became a creative outlet that birthed itself after my first real breakup at 19, something that inspired me to be in front, rather than behind, the camera. I learned discomfort and comfort, poses, angles, situations, settings, and vibes.

The medium was like a practice of joy: that offered personal empowerment, deep replenishment, and the space to be seen in how you always envision yourself or feel you are within — I got to feel that firsthand, after switching from being photographer to being photographed and modeling for my best friend for fun. After this joy sparked and picked up, I got to be apart of projects that were massive for me at the time, like Kota the Friend’s “Like Water” music video, and continued doing this for fun in addition to my studies in college.

Getting paid. At 20 and 21, I went from casually dressing my friends for shoots and spending all day out in whatever locations we wanted, meeting so many new people and musicians, and sharing creative space, I began to see the seeds of something pretty massive and beautiful forming — and I wanted to shine the spotlight on genuine youth, authenticity, and meaning of soul. From flowing creatively with models, I went to shooting unconventional grad photos for my dear friends and practised holding space in all of these scenarios, opening up dialogue, vision, and connection. It was always my deepest honor to witness and give life to the central essence and energy of others.

In this final sense of devotion, I truly catered to my dreams this year, after already steering away from corporations and with jobs not going through when I applied (like to baristas, part-time gigs, nothing just felt right!) and I decided to pursue and engage in this full time: offering the dream package I’ve always wished would be available for someone like me, an always budding and lifelong artist and creative, with body sensitivities and an even bigger heart. I personally share senses of body dysmorphia, and have worked through eons of being through my part in the mill as a body with intersectional identities: moving through youth with being exoticized while living with an eating disorder that catered to a growing survival instinct. This rawness is not unwelcome in our space together: in fact, I welcome it, having been so familiar with these energies, and with the understanding that safe space is co~created and communicative. And above all else, the most important thing when creating with sensual energies if we want the end goals to be balanced ✨

With that and in conclusion to the short version, I am so personally excited to hold space for you, work with you, and co~create masterpieces that will transcend time from its beginning, middle, and fulfillment of idea to creation. Please never feel shy to communicate in our time together: it’s my personal mission to bring self-love back into your visual practices and experience of yourself, in every single way.

The Extended Version

I identify as: photographer, visionary, mystic, healer, and artist, informed primarily through five and ongoing lived years of psychomatic healing in my personal practices and intentions to remain culturally informed, aware, and an ethical practitioner founded in love, to create and facilitate space that’s safe, unifying, and welcoming for folx of all backgrounds, sexual orientations, and disabilities.

My gifts are aimed to heal and uplift the collective, through modalities of tarot and oracle card reading;

in photography

through trauma- and consent-informed yogic practice,

My healing is centered through lived experience as a neurodivergent creative, (with experience loving loved ones with autism and ADHD as well; healing eating disorder; LGBTQIA+ ; radical acceptance and authenticity;

from and with the wisdom of the earth, natural cycles, and ancient scriptures of Buddhism, mindfulness, and embodiment of truths from the ancient scriptures of Eastern healing practices (incorporating holistic health through herbalism and beginning at learning traditional Chinese medicine). I intend to restore balance and harmony to the heart of the Earth and humanity through my intentions with connecting with each person who embraces this space and whom I connect with; through my engagement with the land and those the land supports; through my connection to the spiritual nature of others and by nature of the information I channel for each person on their quest for spiritual knowledge. In return, I return respect, balance, and offer harmonious synergy to the power of ancient practices in places they were once cultivated within (such as yoga, ancient Asia, and power imbalances in the States). I believe my work in the space of healing connection ripples out to the rest of the world and for our future generations: through the passing and transmissions of spiritual knowledge to my clients, whether photographic or through tarot readings, it’s my highest intention and hope that one soul’s journey can continue in embrace of higher knowledge that relieves the individual and thus the collective of greater suffering. By holding a divine mirror to those I work with, I tend to the spiritual wounds and reveal roots of suffering and emotional blockages that are ready to be faced.

Some have found my work catalyzing, heart-warming, and exactly what they need to know to help them make energetically informed decisions, for legacy of their lives. I trust and hope that you, too, will find and experience the same level of joy, wisdom, and inner growth in our time together.

Coaching failures. During 2021, I found two coaches that I worked with, who ultimately were not the guides I wanted, but the guides that pointed into my experience, how a fast-paced, dopamine ridden world we live in prioritizes money, fame, ego, and wealth, over deep connection… And this time really asked me to sit with myself, to question and get curious and intentional about exploring creative means of business that ring ethics, and being soul-founded and based in love (— in the true sense of love, rather than the image or verbal conveying of love, empty hype.) I became open to truly dismantling my own inner internalized systems of urgency; self-centered or hyper-individualistic beliefs that ultimately confined the whole, rather than revealed true self expression; and sat with feelings of the growing commodification of spirituality without context, that missed the point: acceptance of the self, and therefore, of other.

Lessons learned: It was a time in which I yearned to create, and knew I had money to receive and make, and I laugh now in the realization that I was finding myself learning massive lessons instead (that were not at all funny then!) I found new levels of soul community, healing that transpires in the space that I share these days! Why did it feel so hard to put a price on my work — and why were …?

(new page?)

In my work, I invite celestial energy and the heart and soul of the Sky, Earth, and stars. I embrace shadow and lightwork — both within our space and beyond it — ancestral presence, and the wisdom of those who came before us to the unlocking wisdom and messages of your body. For whatever purpose you are seeking, there is an answer and beautiful image waiting to be unlocked before you. 🌿

I am intentional about my integrity with energy and its usage: my personal journey has included immense shadow and lightwork; growing up in a controlling environment and breaking the bonds to my ancestral patterns while finding my values in ethics, integrity, and being in service to humanity; and this includes the media I consume, messages I receive and create, and how I interact with all, as all of these are apart of our shared energetic space.

Having experienced sexual trauma in my own life, I understand both the importance of having a space in which to exist and experience one’s own beauty, and, the “outcome” or results of the images: there is an inherent importance to photography and the artful creation that spark you to love yourself again, along with the process of self-love and inner experience that comes often without words along the way. The role of creating that — the photographer — is a role that can be felt lightly, but not without deep intention, experience, and understandings along the way.

Not the last ones. The first.

She is the second and youngest daughter of two first generation Vietnamese and Chinese American immigrants (with French mixings), and my own personal integration journey has been an immense one that asks of me great compassion, listening, and integrity. The way that I integrated cultural and interpersonal gaps inform my approach to all. Rather than turning away from both cultures, I found myself leaning into the discomfort and nuances of multiculturality, through my body — a reliable instrument for truth, change, and concept. I found myself bridging the gaps in my own experienced reality of the Western public culture in which I was brought into from a very young age, while learning the muscle memory of what love felt and meant to me personally through my own experiences in childhood and growing up in an East Asian-informed household. I learned to love and lean into my own uniqueness through life experiences: how to, through trauma (elaborate here) attune to my mental, physical, psychological, and spiritual experience of this world: drawing upon acceptance and compassion for my mental health, physical expressions, and neurodivergence. So no matter what — this space is a safe space for all, and I commit to that as my entire life continues.

History of my work & the lenses I bring to our shared visual, creative, and embodied physical space:

Having been exoticised in cities with an amplified presence of the entertainment and modeling + art industries and being raised for the second part of my life in Southern California, I have been navigating this all growing up with both living and the physically engrained systems of traditional Vietnamese and Chinese parents, and through such adversity, honor the intention to anchor myself in mindful awareness and love in every gifted, rich, and awakening moment of this life we are so privileged to live, experience, and know in our bodies and souls. I “dissented” early in my childhood — spiritually escaping often through astral projection, lucid dreaming to maneuver my childhood nightmares that rang very true of the magnitude of troubles that were to come in my early childhood and adolescence, and often held very altruistic ideals about the world that my parents, who survived and fled war-torn countries, could not understand.

It’s easy for me now to say that I’m deeply devoted to following my passions, and involving myself with projects that are rooted in values of diversity, inclusivity, and heart-centered self-expression — yet this, too, has come with sacrifices. Through my own immense challenges of adapting to societal expectations of myself, unlearning both society and my parents’ expectations of me and the stories I was told growing up about who I would be or what I could accomplish in this world, I’ve found a deep core of inner strength, and with passions intrinsically tied to creation, have channeled this into alchemizing my impressions of this industry, particularly the bitterness left upon me by superficiality in visual art and creation, and the richness of the stories of our culture that are often lost or muted in the rendering of photos, or more often, during the actual process of something as sacred as a photoshoot.

Even though all I wanted to do was travel to tropical islands and fly drones to create films, I enthusiastically finished and received my Bachelor’s in Communication Studies from California State University, Long Beach (after bouncing around Nutrition, considering Film, Psychology, and Art — three of the most highly impacted majors at CSULB) to enrich my understanding of connection, communication, and humanity ~ and embrace conflict resolution, facilitating peaceful space, and embodying compassion and mirroring in my own life. I fell in love with mentoring students, creating and facilitating safe space for their authentic self-expressions, speech-writing and giving, and brainstorming. Applying my love of and for shared creative spaces, held with open acceptance, love, and ideas — with the knowing and intention that the finished projects are shared publicly — has offered me profound passion and the feeling of home. I loved working with young adults, TEDx speakers, and community leaders, as well as the faculty and staff of my university, to assist in the creation and production of meaningful, moving work. Spoken, recorded, and rehearsed. And in that space and department, my wonderful manager Jamie also happened to create a role for me as resident photographer for our Comms department — where I first flexed the muscles on strangers!! Well — my coworkers. But new faces, bodies, shapes, and environments. :)

Early Childhood & Influences

Photography, fashion, and creative self-expression through body movement, cooking, and art have been my favorite modalities of art since I was young! Based in the Bay Area, I’ve always found passion projects through freelance opportunities, as ways to connect. The world of photography opened initially to me, when my college best friend, a fashion and merchandising major at CSULB, started her fashion blog, and needed a photographer. Being best friends at the time, of course I couldn’t turn it down — but I admit, I was nervous, using an iPhone, had comparisons to shoot with, and no idea what I was doing!

Fast forward to now, I’ve learned through the barebones of photo and the language of visual art in itself: from paint and mixed physical media, I applied and transferred my skills to visual art, editing, and design work. My first paid client shoot was with Gloria Gilman, and the majesty of that time was directly from the essence I was cultivating through communication, my personal yoga practice, and our deep soulful connection.

College

Opening in my work, I highlight minimalism, natural colors, and earthly lighting, and bring to vision natural lines and elements of humanity meeting nature. I value art and self-expression over perfectionism, and bring the lens of curiosity, creative vision, collaboration, and inspiration to all work I do.

After living in San Jose for the last two years and moving about five times between San Francisco, Laguna Beach, and across California, my intention is to cultivate artistic expression with a taste of brightness and longevity, and explore elements of intrigue through my art and within space. It’s a passion of mine, and a vehicle of transformation for not only me, but so, so many. Coming from a middle-class working family and healing many of my own intergenerational traumas, I bring the heart-centered values of inclusivity to all connective work that I do — seeing and valuing creative expression as more than a modality of abundance; in many ways, creativity is a way of being. I’m so excited to work together!

In a world that seems to whirl so quickly, it never ceases to boggle my mind what the meeting point of humanity; passion; intimacy, and intensity of moment, filled with potential and heat, can bring to life.

Can we slow down, and savor the moment? What if this moment, is all we have?

May we commune in peace ✨