Artist. Muse. Storyteller.
Can anyone be an artist? Why not?
Hi friends, I’m Psy! Thanks for taking the time to peruse my artist portfolio. I'm an old-school MySpace Millennial that fell in love with creating art and exploring the internet world. Photography surrounded my life at birth, my parents owned a Polaroid and like most parents-fired away with the film portraits. I'm not saying I was born a photographer-This is something I have grown and learned to love over time. My Mom gifted me my first digital camera before I had the privilege of owning a Motorola SLVR phone, circa my teen years. Like most 90s kids, a lot of our communication depended on access to email, desktops, mobile phones...But some of us remember when we could call each other's landlines to talk on the phone. Face Time kinda replaced that? I wouldn't say an upgrade is always an upgrade-That's why debugging exists!
My origin is not America, although I grew up in North America and would be considered, "American" in the nationalistic sense. My ethnicity is not Native to the Americas, I am from Ilokos Sur. My Grandparents are from Ilokos Sur (Northern Philippines, Luzon) and they are Native to Luzon. "Native" as in synonymous to being Indigenous to a place. A basic history lesson that is important: While the circulating monolith for people from The Philippines is, "Filipino" this actually is an attempt to erase the wide range of different dialects, tribes, cultures, people throughout the archipelago. We are talking about over seven THOUSAND islands, 7,641 islands total in The Philippines. "The Philippines" was a term coined by Spain's "King" Philip II, and I am on a quest to figure out the pre-colonial term to use instead. For now I just tell everyone that I'm from Luzon, North of, "The Philippines."
How does this tie into my artistry?
I see art as a spiritual experience. Authenticity into the human social dance, grappling with the woes of capitalism, celebrating my will to resist, to advocate for having an opinion that differs from the hetero-normative. It feels strange to bag on people for NOT conforming to whatever a church wants, a lot of us did not have the choice of opting out of going to church! People can be religious if they want, the keyword that we should be investing in is, "Consent". A culture around consent would benefit us more than any sort of modern day death cult. There is liberation beyond the rules that were enforced on us. Never let anyone curb your imagination~
Back to photography skills: I focus mostly on wedding photography. Here and there I will experiment with videography on the job. Portraits are what I am REALLY good at, alright? None of us can be good at everything. After years of learning how to cook I still consider myself a better baker because I spent most of my life diving into chemistry. My favorite sport is swimming in a pool or much rather swimming in the ocean. Water is my thing, which makes sense why I enjoy coffee. It probably doesn't matter if the two are correlated or not but that's what I get for living in Seattle. There is a type of hustle culture here, and no one is lying when they say a city will chew you up and spit you out multiple times. The daily espresso habit helps me cope with the ongoing freeze year 'round...
If you're wondering: my drink of choice is an iced quad shot white chocolate americano with oat milk. This word salad of an order makes me sound like the most snobby coffee connoisseur in the room. To this day, there is no degree proving that this knowledge would be much use. Occasionally, I will take a cold brew or a pumpkin spice latte when Autumn approaches.
A city also brings opportunity. I would say that a plethora of opportunities might not replace the amount of shame or pain tolerance it takes to live in a place such as this. There are no regrets and I am proud that I have managed to kickstart a photographer career just by putting myself out there. For 7 years, through various job postings on Facebook and trying to get started with a Thumbtack account, a lot of my former photography clients will send me future requests for hire. I am a longtime art student, I worked as a mall photographer and started wedding portraiture early into my art career-my portfolio is worth sharing!
Let's elaborate more on experience...
While I spent most of my time working my way through college with art gigs, photography and portrait editing, I had to take a short hiatus to focus soley on my degree during 2021. During the first COVID lock-down, poverty struck my life once again. I was working in food service for YEARS before the shutdown. I even went to a festival in San Diego during that March. Weird coming home to places locked down, relying on food delivery and staying inside all the time. My experience still comes from a place of privilege. I could not even book photography gigs, something that had been a huge part of my life up until that point.
My first wedding session was my friend's impromptu wedding on her family's farm out in Hockinson, Washington. For anyone else who is from the Vancouver, WA (VanWa) area might be well aware of this place. One of my favorite portraits I have taken to this day is a portrait of my friend and her Mother giving her a kiss on the cheek. This portrait was mostly candid but we were taking pictures of the bridal party before the ceremony-all of the bridesmaids laughing, crying, my friend was all smiles. Her and her husband are still together today, one of the only couples I know that stayed married well after a decade.
Weddings can be off-putting to even the most confident professionals. We get it, the pressure is on and people want to have a good time with their craft. One of the reasons why I stay in the photography world is because it provides a perspective that not everyone will understand or have a chance to see. We live in a chronically stressful society, marriages can be stressful to everyone involved. Weddings are also a time of celebration, reflection, so many cathartic emotions are involved when it comes to a milestone. I try to focus less on the pressure and instead, confide in all my clients what they're wanting from a session. It is not difficult to give satisfaction to others if we all learn how to ask up front! Consent is mandatory.
I left my contact information on the left hand side for anyone who is interested in talking about booking a session with me. Rates vary, focused on a sliding scale and I also offer payment plans. Feel free to email me for any inquires and/or questions. Good day!