Connect What is your favorite type of art to create?

Street and documentary photography. I'm a first-gen immigrant, the first woman in my family to chase a master's and a Fortune 500 career in tech and AI, and somewhere between spreadsheets and sidewalks I learned I'm a storyteller in both boardrooms and photo boards. I shoot the unposed. A stranger laughing at a parade. A protester in the snow. A lamppost with two birds that won't be there in ten seconds. I photograph what most people walk past, because that's usually where the real story is!

Where do you find inspiration?

Sidewalks, mostly. I find more in a Tuesday commute than I do in galleries. The Mahsa Amini protests at Yonge-Dundas in the snow taught me a photo can carry someone's voice further than they can shout it. The Rockies taught me silence. Kensington vendors taught me color. I think a lot about what it means to be a woman behind the lens in places where women like me weren't expected to take up space, and that quiet defiance shows up in what I choose to frame and who I choose to see.

What would you do with $25,000?

Three things. First, a printed monograph of my Toronto street work, because this city deserves to be held in someone's hands, not just scrolled past. Second, a long-form documentary series on the people who keep this city moving. TTC operators, market vendors, street performers, the workers nobody photographs. That takes real time with them, which takes real budget. Third, mentorship and gear for one immigrant woman starting out, because someone needs to be the door I wish had been open for me.