Creatives x Cities: Andria Lo x San Francisco

Creatives x Cities: Andria Lo x San Francisco

by Aileen Kwun

Photography by Andria Lo and Valerie Luu.

Andria’s go-to tools:

Canon
I shoot everything on Canon cameras and lenses.

Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom
I use these two a ton, both for organization and retouching. Lightroom is amazing for batch edits and exporting; it’s my go-to. When I’m shooting in a studio, I also like to use a tethered capture.

Google Workspace
I have a notebook that I love, but now I’m trying to move everything over to digital, and centralize it into project folders, instead of having to flip through to find my notes every time.

Andria’s favorite podcasts:

How I Built This
I really like this show on NPR, which is about entrepreneurs and their stories.

This Is Uncomfortable
I try not to scare people away from it when I describe it, because it’s a show about money and people’s relationship with it, but it’s really storytelling driven, and very approachable.

They Call Us Bruce
This podcast is about Asian America and the hosts, Jeff Yang and Phil Yu, talk to politicians, actors, artists and all different kinds of guests.

Still Processing
This New York Times podcast about culture, more broadly, is in my regular rotation.

In this interview series, we spotlight creatives in cities around the world who are making a mark on their local communities — and ask about the routines, sounds, and sights that keep them inspired.

Andria Lo’s personal interests — and tastes — are never far from her mind. The freelance photographer creates commercial, editorial, and still-life work focused around food and culture with clients including Bon Appétit, Pixar, and the de Young Museum. But the best part of her job, Lo says, is having control over both her schedule and the projects she chooses to take on. “There’s just something about that freedom that I really like, even though you have to be really disciplined at the same time.”

When she’s not on assignment, Lo’s strolling around town documenting the vibrant outfits and lifestyles of elders of Chinatown residents through her personal project, Chinatown Pretty, co-founded with her friend, writer Valerie Luu. What started as a magazine article several years ago has now grown into a book, blog, and popular Instagram account whose many followers find inspiration, joy, and beauty in Lo’s warm eye for the idiosyncratic sartorial style found in Chinatown neighborhoods across North America.

We recently caught up with the Bay Area creative, who’s recently settled back into Berkeley, California, after several years living in San Francisco and Oakland.

Andria Lo at work. Photos by Valerie Luu.

Hi, Andria! Tell us a bit about yourself. How would you describe yourself and your work?

I’m Andria. I’m a freelance photographer, and I focus a lot on food and creative still-life. I’m also really interested in capturing imagery from my Asian American community, through Chinatown Pretty and other projects.

How long have you been based in Berkeley, and what first brought you here?

I was living in Southern California and moved here to go to school at UC Berkeley, and just fell in love with the Bay Area. I love that it’s worldly, but also a little bit hippie, and has great access to nature so close by. I’m a two-minute drive from a hike in the hills, and there’s just so much to see and do: the ocean, the redwoods, the food — everything, really. Culturally, it’s a really special place.

“I love that the Bay Area is worldly, but also a little bit hippie, and has great access to nature so close by. Culturally, it’s a really special place.”

Do you have a morning routine that gets you going?

I wake up pretty early, usually before 7:00 a.m., but I don’t get out of bed until at least another half-hour later [laughs]. I just love how quiet it is in the morning and will spend a bit of alone time basically warming up to the day. I listen to a lot of podcasts, so sometimes I’ll start that in the morning, and make a hot drink. That’s my usual morning flow, at least when I’m not shooting.

Still-life work by Andria Lo.

How did you find your way into photography?

I was an art major with a focus in photography, and kept that up after graduating. I was doing web design and production work, then started working at a photo studio and worked my way up from there. I went freelance a little over 10 years ago, and in the past few years, I’ve been doing a lot more commercial work, which has been really fun — I’ve always shot a variety of things, from food to still-life and products.

What’s a typical shoot day like?

It really depends on the project needs, and whether I’m on location or in the studio. My studio shoots tend to start early, at 8:30 a.m., and if it’s for food or product, those can run for at least eight hours, and up to 10 — they’re really long days, but we get so much done in a really short, concentrated period of time.

A lot of people think I just do everything myself (or at least through the inquiries I get), but a lot of it is very collaborative: I have a network of freelancers, stylists, and retouchers I work with. I have a studio space in West Oakland pretty close by, about 10 minutes from where I live. It’s a great little warehouse space that works well for my product photography.

Andria Lo at work. Photo by Valerie Luu.

What inspired the start of Chinatown Pretty?

Valerie and I started the project in 2014. We were just hanging out in [San Francisco’s] Chinatown a lot, getting dim sum, hanging out in the park, and people watching. We noticed there were a lot of seniors here, and in Chinatowns in general — they tend to be really densely populated with a high concentration of elders. They’re out socializing, exercising in the park, or grocery shopping, in a way that you don’t see as much in other neighborhoods in SF.

“We were curious about their style, but also about their day-to-day lives, and about their generation as a whole.”

We became curious about them, and we loved the style we were seeing, which was really interesting and brought a lot of joy to us. So we were curious about that, but also about their day-to-day lives, and about their generation as a whole. What stories do they have? What wisdom can they share? Who are they, where did they immigrate from, and what were they doing that day? This project has allowed us, in that way, to be nosy in a more formalized fashion. [Laughs] Also, we would ask things like: What’s your secret to a happy life?

Thankfully, we’ve been able to work with great interpreters to help us build up enough trust in our interviews, and tell some of the deeper stories, too. And we’ll always send the subjects a print afterwards, if they want it.

Portraits of various Chinatown residents: The Jungs, based in Los Angeles; Angela Chen, based in Oakland; Buck Chew, based in San Francisco; and GuiZhi Li, based in New York City. All photos by Andria Lo.

How did you go about expanding the project beyond the Bay Area?

Before the book project came about, we would just check out other Chinatowns if we were visiting other cities like L.A., New York, or Chicago. It was really cool to see how similar Chinatowns are across America. The book format [led] to visiting additional cities: We structured each chapter around a different city, visiting some of the largest Chinatowns. But San Francisco, I think, is really special. That’s where it all started, and it’s where we noticed the signature Chinatown Pretty fashion and way of dressing. San Francisco’s weather really lends itself to a kind of patchwork style of layering.

“Chinatown Pretty has always been about celebrating the seniors in Chinatown, and the neighborhood as a whole.”

Chinatown Pretty celebrates this lifestyle of function, but also joy, adaptation, and resilience. How has it been to see the project resonate with so many readers?

I think people, especially in my generation, are thinking more about elders and seniors, which is great to see. They can often seem almost invisible to a lot of people — and I understand, there are seemingly a lot of barriers to communicate with this demographic; they’re older, they may not speak English. We’ve done the hard work to get through those barriers and share more about their daily lives, and we’ve heard from a lot of people that this book has been a bit of a beacon through all of the difficult news — that it lifts their spirits. It’s very heartwarming to hear that we can offer that to people as a counterpoint to the news and trends we’re seeing. Chinatown Pretty has always been about celebrating the seniors in Chinatown, and the neighborhood as a whole.

Scenes from city life in San Francisco and Los Angeles Chinatowns. Photos by Andria Lo.

What did you observe and learn from visiting various Chinatowns across North America?

We learned so much about Chinatowns and the people and nonprofit organizations that do the work to make sure that they're really liveable neighborhoods. In every Chinatown that’s pretty established, there’s at least one, if not multiple, nonprofits that have been doing the work for decades behind the scenes.

We first pitched this project as a one-off story for The Bold Italic and shot for a couple months, and I remember thinking, ‘Gosh, these are so hard to get, but it’d be cool to keep [it] going’. It just wasn’t feasible, but then a couple years later, one of the biggest Chinatown nonprofits in SF, called CCDC [Chinatown Community Development Center] reached out to us about working together. They saw the potential of storytelling through art, and offered to host a photo show in one of their community spaces that had just opened up. Through them, we revived the project, started our Instagram and the blog, and connected with many more seniors in the community. They’ve been such a great partner — and working with organizations like CCDC has helped us see another side of Chinatown.

Chinatown Pretty has been a personal project for several years, and having the book out now into the world has been pretty amazing, because it’s been a labor of love for so long for me and Valerie.

Cover and interior spreads from Andria Lo and Valerie Luu’s Chinatown Pretty, published by Chronicle Books.

What are some valuable lessons you’ve learned while living and working in the Bay Area for the past 15 years?

Getting involved through volunteering or nonprofits has been a really great way to build community. I like to find clients that are between both worlds and who are leaders in their space, in terms of ethics and values; it just feels like a fit when we’re aligned. A lot of that stems from when I was Photo Director at [the Asian American culture magazine] Hyphen several years back, which was entirely volunteer-based. I think that’s because a lot of the shows and projects I’ve done with the community show my values as well. Somehow, I’ve been able to find a sweet spot.

“Freelance might seem like a totally solo thing, but my takeaway advice is that you should really try to nurture collaborative relationships.”

What’s the best career advice you’ve either given or received?

Honestly, my path has been pretty winding, but I think doing a lot of personal projects is really helpful. That, and trying to collaborate with others. It’s hard to do things totally alone, not just for the accountability, but also for the creative magic that can come about from working with others. It’s a huge boost, and you need people around for support and resources. Freelance might seem like a totally solo thing, but my takeaway advice is that you should really try to nurture collaborative relationships.