Mischelle Moy’s pleasant and dreamlike photography pays tribute to her Chinese heritage

The New York-based photographer uses an expressive colour palette, grand compositions and carefully considered props to add a new dimension to commercial photography.

Date
24 November 2022

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As the eldest child of Chinese immigrants, NYC native Mischelle Moy has “taken the reins to explore my family’s rich culture, history and tradition of the motherland”. It's a responsibility she’s brilliantly taken on while “simultaneously dissecting the American side of things”. To add to that, Mischelle works primarily with brands and small businesses that are female and Asian-American-owned.

And when we say work, we really mean work. Mischelle’s colour-heavy photographs are the result of her own prop sourcing, styling, photography and post-production. Working with “a lot of various textures in fabrics, toys, reflective materials and food”, she finds that “sourcing the right props and sketching out the concepts” takes the most time. It’s the set-building process and colourisation that she enjoys most – crating her visual rhyme and reason around cultural memorabilia like vintage Chinese cookbooks and i-SPY books. “This exploration into my Asian-American-ness is often translated into my work as I put my own modern style on tradition,” she details, “which in some ways is still honouring the past while creating new rituals.”

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Mischelle Moy: Wing on Wo – Lookbook I (Copyright © Mischelle Moy, 2020)

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Mischelle Moy: Cirque Colors (Copyright © Mischelle Moy, 2020)

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Mischelle Moy: From Chinatown, With Love – Ting’s Gift Shop (Copyright © Mischelle Moy, 2021)

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Mischelle Moy: Umamicart (Copyright © Mischelle Moy, 2021)

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Mischelle Moy: Omsom (Copyright © Mischelle Moy, 2020)

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Mischelle Moy: Umamicart (Copyright © Mischelle Moy, 2020)

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Mischelle Moy: From Chinatown, With Love – KK Discount (Copyright © Mischelle Moy, 2021)

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Mischelle Moy: Wing on Wo – Lookbook I (Copyright © Mischelle Moy, 2020)

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Mischelle Moy: Omsom (Copyright © Mischelle Moy, 2020)

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Mischelle Moy: From Chinatown, With Love – Bangkok Grocery(Copyright © Mischelle Moy, 2021)

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Mischelle Moy: Cirque Colors (Copyright © Mischelle Moy, 2020)

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Mischelle Moy: Wing on Wo – Lookbook I (Copyright © Mischelle Moy, 2020)

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Mischelle Moy: Cirque Colors (Copyright © Mischelle Moy, 2020)

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About the Author

Roz Jones

Roz (he/him) joined It’s Nice That for three months as an editorial assistant in October 2022 after graduating from Magazine Journalism and Publishing at London College of Communication. He’s particularly interested in publications, archives and multi-media design.

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