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 I love the candidness, but I also love how she incorporates life to her picture by always capturing people, plants, scenery. Seeing her photos are inspiring, I see a lot of creativity and room for interpretation. I also feel a very optimistic vibe when scrolling through her work, I think this says a lot about the artist herself. She seems to be like an optimistic art/activist (ARTIVIST).

artist: Maika Elan

Maika Elan is a Vietnamese photographer who started out her career shooting for fashion firms in her country. She later evolved into a documentary photographer, capturing raw moments in everyday life. Maika is uniquely recognized for using Lomography cameras which gives her photography a pop and quirky style.

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Maika also known as Nguyen Thanh Hai is quite an experimental artist, and is most recognized for her first project that she did, titled, Pink Choice. For this project she captured personal and intimate everyday moments shared between gay couples in Vietnam. This project was radical and impacted Vietnam because in capturing these couples, she brought to light the gay and lesbian community in Vietnam which isn't as socially accepted as one would assume. These controversial pictures were of people just being themselves with one another, but behind closed doors. None of the photographs were taken in public.

 

 

Following the start of her Pink Choice project, Maika sought out to capture the underrepresented people of Vietnam and has done so with an experimental approach. She has a long list of exhibitions; she has had her work showcased such as Italy, Spain, Denmark, Singapore, and Malaysia. Her work speaks for itself, the photos are full of life, color, creativity and imagination, and the overlapping in the lomo films creates a story within each photo

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