The Professional Photographer / Writer Experience at PolyU (2019-2021)

I love photography and I love how stories connect people. The biggest lesson I’ve learnt from the 2-year experience is that event photography is an exceptionally social endeavor. To excel, you must be both a participant and a bystander. You must resist the urge of standing by the sidelines and engage in the party, yet still have the social finesse to glide into the photographer role when necessary.

I worked as a photographer and writer in the first two years of my undergraduate to finance my living expenses, on top of the scholarship stipend. As a part-time student helper at the Global Engagement Office (used to be International Affairs Office), I’ve photographed and written for social media posts and other publications. We also direct short videos ocassionally.

At the Office for Service Learning and Leadership (used to be Office for Service Learning), I joined a crew of photographer/writers from Brown University to document PolyU’s service learning teams in Cambodia and Rwanda, as they provide services to the local communities. The journey was condensed into our publication

To write and photograph people requires the storyteller to understand the subject the way they see themselves. I am very thankful for having expert colleagues who enlighted me to the philosophy of storytelling, and for PolyU to give me the opportunity to discover and explore communities that are so vastly different from my own.