This is Michelle.
Michelle is a traveling photographer that specializes in intimate, adventurous weddings & elopements who just finished a 6 month camper van journey around the US. Her parents are immigrants from Hong Kong that moved to the Bay Area here in California.
Michelle grew up hiking, camping, fishing in Northern California. Those outdoor memories provided an escape to her overwhelmingly negative childhood.
Having recently relocated to Hawaii, Michelle moved for better quality of air and more accessibility to the outdoors as well as mental health reasons- one of them being more included and accepted in a dominantly Asian American environment.
“The outdoors is a healing, meditative space for me. It trains me to be mindful and reenergizes me, especially in regards to my original roots in photography as a travel/nature/landscape photographer.
The outdoors offers me a space where I can seek peace and find comfort in the feeling of being insignificant, small. It connects me to not just the nature, but to the planet as a broader entity. The outdoors is also a grand inspiration for my photography.”
Even though the outdoors is a very special place for Michelle, her social interactions haven’t been easy.
“I definitely feel excluded, especially being Asian American in outdoor culture that markets itself as primarily white and upper-middle class. As someone low-income and BIPOC, I absolutely find many popular destinations not as enjoyable without the money to take private tours, stay in beautiful rentals, pay for admission to resorts, etc. I tend to avoid such places and find enjoyment and places more isolated, less judgmental, and free to access.
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I especially hate being targeted and discriminated against as another one of those ‘loud, annoying Chinese tourists.’ ”
As life is looking more comfortable and hopeful for Michelle, she learns that “nature doesn’t discriminate; only people do.”
Michelle feels safer in nature with her boyfriend and dogs by her side.