I grew up in Indonesia between two cultural worlds: a Minangkabau mother whose lineage is matrilineal, and a Javanese father shaped by a patriarchal tradition. That pull between inheritance and expectation, in gender as much as geography, continues to shape the photographs I make.
After moving to the United States, I spent more than 25 years working in tech. It was a rewarding career, but over time, I realized I wanted to make photographs instead.
Finding the Camera
In December 2022, I worked with a model for the first time, guided by fashion and fine art photographer Mark de Paola. That single session opened a door I didn’t know existed.
Over the next few years, I joined Mark’s masterclasses and immersive shooting experiences. Those experiences took me from the redwood forests of Big Sur to backstage at New York Fashion Week, and from a week immersed in Tokyo’s photography culture to a five-day portraiture masterclass in Paris.
Finding Community
By late 2024, my technical curiosity had become something more serious, and I started looking for people who took the work as seriously as I did.
The East Bay Photography Collective (EBPCO) in Oakland taught me the fundamentals of photography, from darkroom printing and alternative processes to image critique. I found creative friends who understood why any of it mattered.
The Center for Photographic Art (CPA) in Carmel introduced me to a community of fine-art photographers and diverse artistic practices. The Palo Alto Camera Club (PACC) gave me a steady, supportive group to bring work to, to fail in front of, and to grow with.
Finding the Path
The last stretch has been about direction rather than volume, learning to ask what the work is actually for.
I started 2026 with Susan Burnstine’s portfolio development class, which taught me to look at my own images the way a stranger would. That was followed by Todd Hido’s bookmaking workshop, which taught me that a body of work is not a pile of good photographs; it’s a sequence, an argument, a shape.
Now
I turned fully to photography in 2023. Today, based in Sunnyvale, California, I create photographs that explore identity, belonging, and the ways people inhabit themselves and the spaces around them. My work has been exhibited in group exhibitions across the San Francisco Bay Area and Monterey Bay since 2024.
Photography has become the way I continue exploring questions of identity, home, and belonging.