"A person, as they are, is enough to sustain a compelling image"
Bio
Dr. Haemy Chung, Pharm.D., is a Sacramento-based portrait photographer and mental health provider. Their work explores the complexities of the human mind, including themes of duality, inner strength, authenticity, and contradiction. Central to Haemy’s work is the belief that a person, as they are, is enough to sustain a compelling image.
Working primarily through portraiture, Haemy creates deliberate images that emphasize atmosphere, gesture, and quiet emotional tension over spectacle. Their photography often focuses on the subtle ways people carry vulnerability, endurance, uncertainty, and hope simultaneously. The work reflects an ongoing interest in the inner worlds people carry.
Alongside their creative practice, Haemy works in mental health care, where close attention to lived experience and emotional nuance continues to inform their artistic perspective. In turn, photography deepens their understanding of empathy, presence, and personal narrative. The two disciplines maintain a symbiotic relationship, each enriching and informing the other.
Haemy’s photographic education has been developed through self-directed study and workshop education. An especially impactful experience was a study with Paolo Roversi, whose subtractive and psychologically attentive approach to image-making continues to influence their artistic development.
Haemy’s work has been featured by Vogue Italia PhotoVogue and exhibited through Viewpoint Photographic Art Center and American Photographic Artists San Francisco. Haemy is also a member of Viewpoint Photographic Art Center and serves on the board of the Professional Photographers of Sacramento Valley.