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Sharing more of the extended research & photography of my month long ARROZidency artist-in-residence. If you are just starting here, I recommend scrolling to the bottom to start at the beginning. View from a computer for the full experience! As another reminder, I've split up the work from my residency into 2 separate tags: For my main residency project only, visit: For the full extended roundup of my research during my residency, visit: It was Sunday, February 2, 2025. The rain was making its way through San Francisco & I had a ticket to the Asian Art Museum's free admission day. The rain was coming down & I remember being on the phone with my partner in the morning, asking him if I should still go, because it was raining & I wanted to be cozy. 😅 He encouraged me to go, because I may never get another chance to experience this again. I got dressed & had a short bike ride over to the museum from my sublet in Nob Hill. I was hoping that even though it was the free admission day, that not many people would be there because it was raining. I was sadly mistaken, haha! It was a bit too crowded for my taste, too noisy, I had a hard time navigating the galleries, some of the galleries were closed for installation, & from what I did get to see, I wasn't really impressed with the exhibitions. However, the main thing I wanted to experience at the museum was the lion dance performance. Having experienced my first lion dance performance just the year prior, I wanted to relive that electrifying feeling again. While the program was sadly so unorganized, the performance itself was so much fun to experience. At this time, having just left LA for this residency as the fires were erupting, I wanted to bring back some good fortune and cast off any lingering bad energy before returning to LA. 🐍 I hope everyone is feeling the energy of rebirth and renewal as we all finish shedding our skin from the year of the wood snake. Now, as we enter the year of the fire horse, I wish everyone a happy Chinese New Year, Tết, and Seollal! Fun fact: I was born in the year of the horse (in the 1900s)! The horse is known for being strong, independent & anti-authoritarian by nature. May we all channel our big fire horse energy this year as we dream of a future where authority & hierarchies no longer exist. ❤️🔥🐎 Shout out LionDanceME for their high-energy performance! Here's some photos of their performance from last year. Photographs were created with my Nikon ZF & a 24-70mm lens. Click any image below to enlarge.
  
  
    
     
 Additional photos & research from the rest of my residency are forthcoming & will be tagged under ARROZidency.
Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram, subscribe to my YouTube channel, or subscribe to my newsletter for updates on my blog posts, projects, or upcoming programs. If you've read this far, thank you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments.
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Back at the beginning of November, I got to check out one of Artronika's shows again. As some of you know, I've attended a couple of their events already & have had the opportunity to do some photography for them last year. This time, I got to check them out at the DS Night Market! I went to the night market once before, back when they were still located at Lax-C. Now they've relocated to the Chinatown Plaza & it seems like a great location for them. More foot traffic, more visibility, space, & also helps bring a little more life back to Chinatown. LA's Chinatown has seemed dead these days, among other underlying issues of gentrification that exist in Chinatown as well. With the cost of housing skyrocketing across LA County, we have vacant "luxury" apartments in Chinatown adjacent to small 1-bedroom apartments cramped with low-income Chinese seniors struggling to get by & survive — especially in Chinatown, where there are no grocery stores within walking distance. I often find myself riding the bus among Chinatown seniors on their way to Super King by our house, which is already nearly 4 miles away from Chinatown. That aside, it's nice to see community coming together in Chinatown again, united by art, music & the mouth-watering aromas of Thai street food — arguably some of the best I've had in ages, because the Thai food in Northeast LA sucks. 💀 Anyways, I'm not a food critic. I'm here to share some photography! I published a few videos on my YouTube channel as well. Check out my Artronika playlist. Unless otherwise stated, photos were created with my Nikon ZF, a 24-70mm lens & Lightpix Labs Flashq Q20ii. If interested in event photography, please send me an email! Click any image below to enlarge. I recommend viewing from a computer for the full experience.
 A few misc photos to start, haha. The top 4 were made using a Pocket Dispo lens. Below, we have Artronika’s Executive Director, Ireesh Lal, playing jazz trumpet over his DJ mixes of world music, with a focus on South Asian sounds. Neel Agrawal joined on tabla and Indian percussion, while artist Norton Wisdom painted live on a fiberglass canvas. Flyght Club also joined the lineup, performing a few of his original tracks.
 Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram, or subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates on my blog posts.
If you've read this far, thank you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments.
I can't embed videos into a post if there's too many photos. Here's some videos I took at the show that I posted on my YouTube channel. In case you missed the photos from the show, keep scrolling down, or you can view them here. Videos were also filmed with my Nikon ZF & Pocket Dispo.
Last Saturday, December 13, I got to check out a photo zine pop-up & punk show at our local library in Cypress Park, Northeast Los Angeles. I grew up in LA, but we've lived in CP for 10 years now, & despite the rapid gentrification happening in our neighborhoods, we love NELA for its unique offerings like these. I got to reconnect with my friend Valerie J. Bower, whom I haven't seen since before the pandemic. Her photography is not only an inspiration to me, but her hard-working ethic truly shines through, & it's just cool to know another Filipina-American artist with similar interests as me (photography & underground music). She even gifted me a signed copy of one of her zines! Such an honor to add to my collection. I've been wanting to make another photo zine for years, but I struggle with getting myself organised. 🥴 After the show, we got some free zines from Razorcake & some printed media from the UCLA Library Punk Collective. Then I went into the library to check out some DVDs. With the way streaming has been going (both video & music), I've been trying to beef up my record collection, have started getting into collecting cassettes (more affordable), & we started buying DVDs. On occasion, we'll walk to the library to see what DVDs they currently have on rotation, too. Support your local library! And I hope one day the library will respond to me when I've asked them about doing programming there, too. 😅 Anyways, here are a few photos I made with my Nikon ZF & Pocket Dispo lens. These are not intended to be artistic, per se, or professionally packaged, just made for fun. :) Click any image below to enlarge. I recommend viewing from a computer for the full experience.                                                 Happy AAPI Heritage Month! I am finally back in the states after spending a total of 4.5 months traveling. I think it's safe to say I will be here again for a while, as I finish some outstanding projects & look for new work. Throwing it back to last year, I had a wonderful opportunity to work with Artronika & the South Asian creative community doing photography for their Chakras events at the Siesta Day Club near Chinatown, Los Angeles. The events included a 7-course food experience by Bombay Beach restaurant — each course corresponding with one of the 7 chakras & their colors — as well as cultural music, dance & visual art by a number of artists from various parts of the South Asian diaspora & adjacent. It was a pleasure to work with the South Asian community, whom I feel is often forgotten from the AAPI experience. Definitely make sure to follow Artronika on Instagram & catch their next event around LA County! Artronika is a non-profit arts organization that produces immersive arts programming showcasing South Asian talent collaborating with visual artists in non-traditional performance spaces. Executive Director, Ireesh Lal, is a trumpet player and Recording Artist that has been producing events throughout Southern California for several decades. Last year I'd just gotten my Nikon ZF, & I also took out some new fractal filters for a spin for the first time. Here's a selection of photos below made using a 24-70mm lens. Click any image to enlarge. View from a computer for the full experience. May 2025This was my first Chakras event. I didn't know what to expect, other than what I'd seen in YouTube videos from prior research. I remember it being very hot that day & I was boiling alongside the artists (haha), whom were all very welcoming & seemed to be having a great time regardless. The food & music were phenomenal. It was also my first time seeing a contortionist in-person. Paired with the food & music, my mind was a bit blown. 😅 Ireesh Lal DJ'd a mix of electronic and world music while playing jazz trumpet and synths. Neel Agrawal joined on tabla and Indian percussion. Norton Wisdom painted live on a fiberglass canvas. Choreography and dance by Lena Fumi. Body painting by Sig Aberin and Rio Sirah. Amita Batra hosted the afternoon and additional vocal performances by Arzeen Kamal & Ashwin Sriram. Several additional guest musicians were also featured throughout the event.                                                 August 2025This day was a lot cooler (in temps)! No fractal filter this time, but I came strapped with a flash unit after seeing how varied the lighting was at the last event. Plus, with the event starting later in the day this time around (after how hot the last one was!) & the sun going down, it really came in handy with the later performances. Saw some familiar faces from the last event as well as met some new artists. Also got to hang with some friends who came out, too! No food pics this time, but just understand that the food was of course remarkable once again. Ireesh Lal DJ'd a mix of electronic and world music while playing jazz trumpet and synths. Neel Agrawal joined on tabla and Indian percussion. Norton Wisdom painted live on a fiberglass canvas. Choreography and dance by Lena Fumi. Body painting by Rio Sirah. Comedian Dhruv Singh hosted the afternoon. Local underground South Asian songwriters performed a mix of original and covers throughout the event, including Vaishali Sanas, Flyght Club & Arzeen Kamal.                                                             Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram or subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates on my blog posts. If you are interested in hiring me for event photography, shoot me an email.
If you've read this far, thank you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments. |
NICA AQUINOIn this space I'll share digital previews of my film photography, updates on new artworks in progress, upcoming programs, inspiration & my other misc interests. Archives
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