“Hello to Old Stories”: Rachel Tse’s Hong Kong
words by Kyla Rain & Rachel Tse, photos by Rachel Tse
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Rachel Tse, an 18 year old photographer from Hong Kong, is capturing her world as it unfolds in a series of dreamy and eyeopening photographs entitled, “Hello To Old Stories.” We asked her to send us some of her favorite works that she’s taken, and try to match each one with a song which she believes encompasses the image.
It’s amazing, what some people can see and others can miss. Her work is about the way fog can coat a landscape, as if enveloping everything within reach, and how a silhouette can bring back the sounds and scents of childhood; that’s what I feel with Rachel’s work. It’s awe-inspiring and captivating and mysterious all wrapped up with a bow.
“I first started photography at thirteen, after I took a solid amount of badly edited ‘fashion photos’ and self portraits in my high school computer class. Apparently I was the only one who took the class seriously, and people in the lower years have told me that my teacher still shows my photography blog as an example every year. (Which is shockingly embarrassing and I can’t even delete the blog because I forgot my login password.) After that, I realized I really enjoyed taking photos and editing, which was how my photography continued.
I’d say my style is dreamy and nostalgic. I was born and raised in Hong Kong, but grew up in an international environment. Because of that, I grew up feeling detached from my hometown, like an outsider looking in, always longing for a place that didn’t really exist. I’m fully aware that the romanticism of moments and Hong Kong’s dreamy spirit run as a backbone of my photos. This photo series is a montage of adventures and stories that fill my heart up in a way I can’t really explain.”
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