Melanie Tjoeng builds community through her feel-good portraits

A resounding emotion of loneliness seems to overwhelm all else lately. Maybe you read the stats that say so. Maybe you watched All Of Us Strangers. Maybe your friends moved away. Maybe you just feel the feeling. No matter how it happened, you’ve likely heard we’re in an isolating epidemic where human connection feels hard to find.

But this doesn’t mean we’ve stopped trying. Whether you have joined a book club, a dance class or a sewing school to meet people, or you reach out to your family more, the instinct to reconnect is making a much needed comeback. Melanie Tjoeng, a portrait photographer and founder of inclusive modelling agency, The Honolulu City Club, is bridging this distance through her art.

“When we’re inundated by bad news with the present socio-political environment and global climate crisis, I wanted to capture intimate moments and portraits of creatives to spark some hope through art,” Tjoeng tells woo. In her latest series, the photographer spotlights diverse emotions that colour young people’s lives; despite being chronically online and amidst turmoil, the artist believes Gen Z is full of conviction.

Through portraits of young people she’s worked with, found friends in and lived alongside, Tjoeng hopes to highlight the power in individual voices and subsequently in community. By zooming in on the details, expressions and new ways of seeing faces, her photos urge viewers to empathise with each other and find common ground in humanity. In turn, spending a day with her subjects helps the artist understand society and the world from a unique lens.

“My work is driven by people’s stories,” Tjoeng says. “These young creatives are finding ways to express themselves and create joy from their little corner of the world, in whatever form of expression works for them. This is their own superpower and I want to capture that.”

The photographer’s work has previously been exhibited in Los Angeles, London, Honolulu, New York, Mexico and Australia. Tjoeng was also recognised by Time Magazine among the top 50 photographers to follow in the United States and was nominated photographer of the year in Hawaii.

To discover more of Tjoeng’s work, visit her website and Instagram.