Hi :) My name is Christina, and I’ve been developing my craftsmanship around visual arts, dance and self-expression, writing, communication, and culinary arts over the last 24 years of my life — and to be frank, fighting & alas finding PEACE in the traditional culture from which I grew up in, as a Chinese and Vietnamese daughter to first-generation immigrant parents. I’ve been a California girl for most of my life, but created roots in other parts of the states and finding deep solace and joy wherever there is a body of water, expanses of land and animals, or cultured human kindness & diversity.

I earned my degree in Communication Studies at CSU Long Beach in 219, with focus in Conflict Resolution, Mediation, and intercultural communication.

My approach to life is resolutely founded in love… and this journey has not been an easy one, but one that has me in a constant intention to steward the softness of my heart as I pour this love back out into the world.

I hail with grace and love of the city, which practically raised me.

Art, culture, fashion, and wellness dominate my heart and presence, as well as my deep inclinations to experiencing life through spirituality, non-duality, and psychology.

Hey :)

Why do I do this?

I’ve been asking myself this a lot lately.

because let’s face it, photoshoots can be wicked uncomfortable, and leave us so disappointed with the outcome. Something that is already so nerve wracking, peppered with societal expectations to form-fit into someone we are not; magazines, performative gender hysteria and stoic poses; spaces that feel too small for our great spirits;

add onto that a horrible photo of an hour-long window that we desperately searched our souls for the final kernel of courage to book — for the passport, for the headshots, for the position, for the sake of having BEAUTIFUL PHOTOS of oneself — can leave us feeling worse about ourselves, our bodies, our role and importance in this world.

How is photography NOT transformative, deeply healing, and meaningful to everyday life — capturing the miracles that when stressed, we defer to calling the mundane?

But on a deeper level…

This is why I am here.

To be honest, there’s something about having a reliable mirror — whether that be a person you love, an actual reflective mirror that you look into every single day, or photos that you look back on, the thoughts that you tell yourself, the ones that actually ring true — that affect us deeply. Immensely. It is human psychology, biology, anatomy, and on a soul level — NATURAL to be deeply seen, loved, witnessed, and held.

I had parents who never knew what it meant to fly.

As an Asian-American second generation daughter — and the youngest — with a soul that surpasses the confines of humanity’s rigid structures of form, function, and matter, I’ve found my own self lost in the myriads of others’ illusions for so much of my life. I’ve fought for my voice, for my own depictions of myself, my sexuality, and my BODY as she IS — not as media has depicted me, an attractive Asian woman, and have been deep in my own journey of integrating the shadows that these perceptions of self have imprinted upon me.

The reliability of a safe, warm, infinitely nonjudgemental mirror, was something I’ve personally cultivated through various methods: through yoga, which has connected me with my body; through meditation, studying psychology & learning about it through my sister, a privately practiced and licensed LMFT — and all this aside, I LOVE to make others feel good about themselves.

And not in THAT way — but in ways that are consensual, self-affirming, and that offer divine space for self-discovery. Key word: S p a c e

When we fly, why is it that it feels like only spirit is there to see us?

For so many years in MY life, I’ve been able to cultivate this creativity for my friends, myself, in those quiet morning moments, in designated shoots throughout the day, and this pure genuine energy that can be captured through the uniqueness of our HUMAN BODIES, through FORM, and through the nature of our very being is my impetus. We as human beings are far greater than any mediocre media image we so often subconsciously form our bodies to be like, to turn into “eventually,” or evolve into over time.

What about NOW?

What about the spirit that lives in your body, now? Where do they live? How do they feel?

And if you vibe with this —

if YOU want to HEAR, see, and FEEL those portals of possibilities —

for your body, for your beautiful face and the emotions that live within, for the being that lives within your vessel and for its emergence into reality in a surrender to yourself,

I would love to joyously be apart of this. To capture moments that you will not only have for the rest of your life, but to engage in the intimate creative process of guiding, witnessing, and allowing your true self to be expressed.

I want my camera to be the gatekeeper of the silent, moving power of soulful essence: to delight in and witness the emotions that we as unique, powerful, and FREE individuals feel on a day to day motion, and for my own vessel to hold those emotions in the center of our palms, with love, curiosity, and interest.

You deserve it.

Battling my own series of disordered eating, anorexia and bulimia; self-discovery and outgrowing friendships faster than I thought was possible, and settling deeply into friendships in more depth than I could have imagined, I have been on a personal path to spiritual self-discovery — and that journey came with the help of yoga, expansion in self-perception, growth, ease, healing, loss, love, and expansion of self beyond my wildest imaginations.

Over the years, I’ve developed a love for fashion, photography, and people. Get me started on food, nature, nourishment, and self-care, and we’ll be here for the next sixteen years. :) I’ll start with what I have, and where I am: which is here, reflecting on how we’ve come to meet.

My interests photography-wise are in the natural: natural fashion, street style, skin meeting skin, nature, textures, and forms of the body. I deeply feel, and feel deeply. I believe in what I do.

nyone who knows me — which now includes you — that I care deeply about our environment, humans, and causes for positive change, centered, rooted, and founded in love.

For a longer version, it’s quite the story :) if you have the time, feel free to relax into this moment, and fall into my presentation of my own story — I’m keen to see you in person, and capture your story, in comfort with you knowing pieces of mine.

I was born in San Jose to first-generation Asian-American immigrant parents, and life at home wasn’t ever breezy. While my grades thrived in school, and I made plenty of friends, I felt deep within myself this yearning for freedom, for celebration of life, and to explore, adventure, and do, feel, become more — words that nowadays have become mere anecdotes to lives lived almost recklessly — and there’s nothing wrong with that, but it took me a decade to meet myself in the integration of letting go of right and wrong.

I found myself tumbling into those directions when I first became free of the suburbia and city that I grew up in, the hustling, bustling city of Silicon Valley, and fell in love with the artsy, booming, cultured streets of Long Beach, California. This energy, I’ve come to realize lives within me — and it’s the environment that I create that can always pull it out of me (hello, Co-Creation).

Long Beach and I became best friends — this city raised me, in its inclusion, queerness, diversity, and expansion in art. I went to school for Communication Studies, with focus in Mediation, Conflict Resolution, and Intercultural Communication, but, that was after my first year of meeting my college best friend, a fashion major from Hawaii, and after being introduced to the creative world of resistance to the typical 9-5 norm of life, wanting to drop out.

I’m no advocate of this, but I pretty much went from all A’s, the model student, still fairly Type B in nature, to spending my time sitting out in the grass, drawing, meditating, and listening to music, connecting with my best friend, and socializing, dreaming about my future, and constantly thinking of how I could make this world a better place: with what I knew, how I saw, what I felt, and the immensities of my dreams.

You see, travel for me was a dream. It’s always BEEN a dream — activating who I am now. I have no intentions of doing anything less that what’s meaningful, important, and in many ways, transformative to the current culture of this world. My work now aims to include, highlight, and deepen the experiences of humanity; queer people, the nonbinary essence and the layers of that journey, the masks we wear and deposit along our journey. I see no reason as to why the discussion about the discussion cannot, in itself, be a discussion: a beautiful, artistic dialogue between the ephemeral, the infinite, and the unseen: and the ever-unfolding rose of a human, the emotional depth and layers of all of those experiences, expressed in the mortality of this world, of this time, and of our bodies.

This has come from myriads of experience floating around in the opposites, where I’ve found for years, through my own depression and anxieties, deep, interculturally rich learnings about my personality and impact in this world.

Over time, I’ve come to see how meaningful it is to have done the inner work and layered in those regards: to feel deeply is a gift, and to capture and allow others to do infinitely the same is all: an honor, privilege, and birthright. May visual art and photography be something that allows us to rise, to embrace where we may falter, and to hold our essence always near. Rejecting none of it, and embracing all of it.