Hazel was born in Amsterdam shortly after her parents migrated there from China. Although she was raised in Holland the Chinese cultural influence on her was huge. Her cultural duality has shaped who she is today, how she sees things and the way in which she expresses herself in photography. Unconsciously the serenity, harmony and imaginary of Chinese art, combined with her awareness of western art have left an impression in her photographic style.
From an early age, she started to play with compact cameras and loved going through her mum’s black and white studio portraits from the sixties. Later she discovered the SLR cameras and found she could play with different objectives, combining apertures and shutter speeds and this opened up a whole new world to her. However, for a long time photography remained a much loved hobby and she chose to study Business Economics and worked internationally in the financial industry for a decade. When the right time came she decided to follow her passion for photography at the Photo Academy in Amsterdam. Shortly after beginning there, The Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam approached her to create an artwork to cover a huge wall, 7 meters long. During this process, which took more than a year, she was guided by her mentor. Her first international exhibition was in 2015 at Arta Gallery, located in Toronto’s historic district, during the most prestigious curated Photo Festival (Contact Photography Festival) in Toronto. As a result of her association with Arta she got in contact with another Toronto Gallery, who also exhibited her work. Following on from this she continues to present her work both in The Netherlands and internationally. She has participated in many other festivals and art fairs including the Affordable Art Fair and was nominated for the ‘Rabo Ontdekt Talent Prijs’. She has also exhibited in Museums such as Hilversum Museum and Museum de Fundatie.
