Michelle Chan (Chan Wan Chee)
Michelle is a visual storyteller who works with images and community. Her main interest is to explore Chinese folk religion and philosophy from everyday objects and experiences. She is curious how some of these beliefs and ideologies she has are passed down from her family through tales and rituals, and from the mass media in Hong Kong for example music, TVs and films. She explores these questions using photography as visual research and community engagement. It is her unique methodology to artistic practices which is shaped by her background in computer science and behavioural psychology. She then narrates her explorations using magic realism, mixing fiction with reality with imagery as primary medium.
Her work has been shown internationally at a variety of venues including exhibitions and festivals. In Hong Kong, she has presented work at the Hong Kong Art Centre, Kubrick and with the Museum of Half Truths in collaboration with 1a Space.
In 2017, she had her very first solo exhibition in Kubrick Hong Kong for her series "A Tale of City Hong Kong".
In 2019, her series "Crab Seniors" was shortlisted for The Alfred-Fried Photography Award and The Photogrvphy Grant, and awarded laureate for The International Women Photography Award.
In 2020, her on-going bus project “Kaufu” was shortlisted and exhibited for Singapore International Photography Festival.
At the same time, she founded Phoboko, a space for bringing people together through photobooks to challenge traditional views of photography with discussions, talks, and workshops.
She is an INFJ.
She is currently based in Hong Kong.