My name is Mee Thao but everyone calls me Jamie. I am 18 years old. I am a Hmong woman. I was born and raised on the east side of St. Paul, MN. I have three brothers and seven sisters. I am the ninth child in my family. I am currently attending Harding Senior High School and I will be graduating this summer.

I first started taking pictures at the age of 12 at the Portage for Youth. The Portage for Youth is an after school program for young girls ages 8-15. I was assigned a mentor and she taught me everything that I needed to know about black and white photography. I mainly took pictures of my family and of nature.

I was introduced to digital photography at Critical Eye, a program of In Progress, when I was 14 years. My sister Sai was a teacher there. She was the one that got me involved.

I like taking photographs but I like taking digital photographs even more because then I get to bring them onto the computer and recreate them. I never know how it’s going to turn out.

I want to become a better photographer and artist. I want to start taking pictures that can reflect on my emotions and have them be displayed. I hope that one day being a photographer and an artist will lead me to many different places that I can travel to and be able to tell the stories of where I have been. In addition to that I hope that when others see my work and they will be inspired too.

I can be contacted by email at jmethao@hotmail.com or at the In Progress Studio at 651-228-1271.