Today we’d like to introduce you to Htet San.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Hi My name is Htet. I am a Myanmar-born artist based in Alabama now. On summer, Htet travels around for photoshoots and adventures and mostly probably will be found in New York City. Htet works with mixed media art, photography, and installation. Her work explores ideas of identity, existence, memories, nostalgia, societal problems and human experience in a meditative and contemplative manner. Recently, she has been combining the mixed media concepts of installation, video projections, and sculptural/material mediums with traditional darkroom and digital imaging techniques.
For the past decade, I lived and worked in New York City across different industries, starting from publishing, fine art and commercial industries. When COVID 19 happened, I received a residency to expand my practice in photography at Flower City Arts Center, Rochester and in 2021, I was offered to teach photography at Johns Hopkins University. I spend 1 and 1/2 years in Baltimore and worked as a professor of photography in both Johns Hopkins University and Goucher College.
I have also started establishing my photography organization “Defininig Aesthetics Organization” (https://definingaestheticsorganization.com) which is dedicated for alternative/ experimental techniques for global photography enthusiasts. We are in a little hiatus for a while for many reasons ( including the military coup attack in my country) but will be back in full swing in late 2026 with workshops, exhibitions and artist talks.
I published a photobook named “Baltimore : My Days as an Observer” during my stay in Baltimore.
The preivew for the photo book is at
https://www.lensculture.com/projects/1826996-baltimore-my-days-as-an-obse?set_language=it
The actual link for purchasing photo book is at
https://www.blurb.com/b/11634612-baltimore-my-days-as-an-observer?srsltid=AU7gw4XPtWx7KBYjG8MalN39u8k9mpbu6Sko8CXWVN9F35sL9hga6tPF
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
From 2011 to 2019, I worked in NY across different industries starting from publishing media, fine art auction houses and commercial and editorial industries. When I was in NY, I worked 9-5 and occasionally set time apart for expanding my knowledge and skills in photography but I never have enough time and space to do all experiments in photographic medium as the way I wanted to. In 2019, When COVID 19 happens, I received a residency in Flower City Arts Center in Rochester and I had a chance to go out of my normal routine to do full time art for a year there researching, learning and creating with new photography techniques and ideas. But it was at the same time, my native country was attacked by coup d’etat by Myanmar military dictatorship regime and since all my family members were living there, I have to go through a lot of stress and resilience to live a normal life in here. My beloved father passed away in 2022 . Military coup attacked and killed people in nearby hospital and town the night before my father passed away and he didn’t have any medical help during the critical time. We didn’t even have doctor to approve death certificate and we have to leave our father’s dead body among many corpses that were piling up in the funeral service for many causalities during the city. I have to go through severe depression after that and now after 4 years have passed, I can find some peace of mind by doing some good deeds in the memory of him.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I studied Photography in University of Huntsville, Alabama in 2008 and I moved to New York City in 2011 to pursue my dreams as a creative professional. My first job was in Digital Imaging Department at Niche Media LLC. I worked as a photo compositing, retouching artist for over 10 magazines/ publications Niche Media produced at that time including Art Basel Magazine. Then, I worked as an image editor at Christies’s Auction house. It was my first ever time experience to see all those paintings/ artworks of my favorite artists in person before they go up to auction and it was one of my fond memories for that experience. After that, I worked in commercial industry such as Sandbox studio from Creative Drive and worked with major fashion/ cosmetic brands including Revlon and Clinique.
But, my core of my passion is always in photography. I always have this desire to deepen and expand my photography practice especially in experimental/ alternative genre and having a chance to receive residency in FCAC for a year has given me enough experience and confidence to do so. I received an offer to teach photography at Johns Hopkins university at 2022 and I moved to Baltimore for one and a half years to teach photography at both Johns Hopkins University and Goucher College. Since then, I am doing further research and experiment on photographic medium and pursuing full time teaching as my career.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
To Love and to be Loved is the primary form of happiness in life for me. I want to surround my mind with people and friends I can share mutual love with. But, Also, I find happiness in discovering inspiration to find reasons to survive in life no matter how much struggle/ bad experience we had to go through in life before. Inspiration makes creativity and I would love to focus my mind to inspiration and creativity and what I can do right rather than what I can’t control and it gives a bit of calm and focus to finish what I need to accomplish for the most part. And, Health! As I get older, I notice that’s the most primary thing I have to take care of . Healthiness (both mentally and physically) is Happiness and all starts from there.
Pricing:
- My photo book “Baltimore: My Days As An Observer” is on sale at Blurb for $125 and its available for purchase.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.htettsan.com
