Interview with Stephenie Kay

Stephenie Kay was born in 1986 in Hong Kong. She is a photographer, editor, film director and founder of Studio Tunnel Productions. Always fascinated with images, she became a self-taught photographer, and started focusing on fashion and portraiture. She quickly earned a reputation for her uncanny ability to capture subtle emotions. She was invited by Impossible Film Hong Kong to collaborate on a Polaroid exhibition in 2013, which was her first. In her continued search and desire to further her storytelling with images, she got into filmmaking with the debut of her short film, In The Midst Of The Ocean, which is based on memories of her mother.

Your greatest inspirations or influences?

• Early on, I always looked at Paolo Roversi’s works and interviews.  The way he captures is not just beauty, but the human soul, so Roversi is definitely one of my greatest inspirations. 

• Lately, I have also been inspired by Pina Baush, Yoshi Yamaoto, and painters like René Magritte, David Hockney. 

Tell us a bit about your creative process? Work you are most proud of, things you are looking forward to in 2021?

mmmm, my creative process, sometimes can begin simply from a movie scene or a song I’m listening to, OR a ray of light, lines, shapes, it could happen that maybe the model I’m shooting has a nice pair of ears, that could catch my attention and become the subject of a shot.

Work I am proud of,? maybe the narrative short film I did in 2018.  And my hope is to be a feature film director, which I am still working on.

How has this year changed your creativity ?

In terms of my creativity nothing big has had an effect by this moment. Less commercial work meant more time to focus on the script and some other personal projects. but it was a tough year for Hong Kong.

Thank you Stephenie. Follow her here.