Butterflies by Bao Ngo

When I first "met" Bao Ngo on tumblr a few years ago, we immediately clicked! We’d stay up late chatting, laughing at memes and exchanging tips as self-taught freelancers. Bao is incredibly talented, darkly humorous, and sharp as a tac - I feel like we had been friends for years in our first week of friendship.

Bao’s hazy, stunning photography style envelopes you into a dreamlike world with the incredible use of light and color.

In January, Bao and our friend, fellow photographer Karen Sofia Colon (more on Karen and our photos together soon!), made the trek from New York all the way to the West Coast and stopped by Oregon! We got to spend 24 hours together, taking photos, laughing, and staying in a cosy and adorable Airbnb.

For our first shoot together, Bao was inspired by the Cottingley Fairies and styled me in a tutu with daisies, butterflies, and glitter. Though I was absolutely freezing (ayyy-o wearing very little in 30°F and sitting in wet grass! haha), it was still so fun just being able to finally hang out with Bao in person, and the end result looks magical!

I tried my best at doing a bit of vlogging that day, and you can see a little peak at our day together in this video! I keep wishing I got more footage, but alas, I’m still very new to these things!

We ended up doing two shoots together, I’ll be posting more soon! It is incredibly reaffirming and in a way healing to be able to work on little projects like this with people I click so well with - I'm so grateful to be able to work with such talented people.