Spotlight – Tina Aileen

“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.”

– Stephen King

I am definitely not the most talented person in the world, and like 99% of the people on Earth, I have went through struggles, doubts, unfair treatments from time to time. Of course not all things are bad, I have experienced good times too. All these shaping all our characters and believes.

Up till this point, the crossroad I have seen many times which I put myself in is choosing a career path. Some people used to like the make up I put on them, some like the photos I took, some like the videos I filmed and put together, some like my drawings, some like my designs. And I don’t think I can choose either and put a typical title for myself. Perhaps most creatives shared the same view. The most confused person who knows me and cares for me a lot of years is my partner. “Why don’t you just stick with photography? It is so much easier.” Yes, I know.

But really, why?

I felt I have a life mission – transform objects and subjects to be loveable. I put this in everything I do, like how to make a face looked even more attractive, how to mend a hole on the clothes and use it in advantage for creating new designs, how to boost someone’s confidence by taking the best version of photo of himself/ herself. I love all these things and somehow, they can all linked together to form beautiful stories.

With all these, a business model formed, (combining both photography and fashion design to tell my own stories) which I can finally put my own name on and called it my art.

Yes, I would love to do good for the world, have set some goals, but probably the best thing I can contribute is inspiring those people who get lost in their ways to put more trust onto themselves and go for what they believe they can do.