Miranda Kuo Photography

Mimi Kuo is a photographer who works throughout Asia and the United States. She has worked for the Stanford Daily, Agence-France Press and Reuters News Agency before becoming a freelance editorial photographer in 1995.

Mimi's portraits and documentary photography explore the intersections of gender, culture, spirituality and social and economic change. Her work includes essays chronicling the conditions faced by Chinese women in literacy, labor, migration, drug addiction, and concepts of beauty; portraits of Tibetan artisans and their work; and Bhutanese nuns in pursuit of spiritual enlightenment. She also works frequently with the United Nations family, and has been contracted by UNDP and UNESCO. Beginning in 2005, UNESCO assigned her to photograph people's cultural practices for a forthcoming Global Heritage web portal. Her assignments have taken her to Azerbaijan, Bhutan, China, Cambodia, India, Italy, Malaysia, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Tibet, the United States and Uzbekistan.

Originally from Tucson, Arizona, she has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and New York City. She received her bachelor of arts degree in American Studies with a minor in East Asian Studies from Stanford University in 1994. She currently lives in Beijing, China, where she is also a co-founder and teacher at Yoga Yard, the city's first dedicated hatha yoga studio.

Editorial photography (published work):

Asiaweek
Businessweek
Departures Magazine (American Express Travel Magazine)
Fortune
International Herald Tribune
Junior Scholastic
Knight Ridder News Service
MSNBC
Newsweek
That’s magazines (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou)
The Boston Globe
The Insider’s Guide to Beijing
The Los Angeles Times
The New York Times
The South China Morning Post
The Wall Street Journal
Time (US, Taiwan and Asia editions)
Vogue CHINA
Washington Post

Corporate, social, and non-government organization (NGO) clients:

All China Women’s Federation (Rural Women Knowing All)
China Association for Non-Government Organizations (CANGO)
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CAAS)
Clinique (Japan)
Coca-Cola China, Ltd.
Gulliver's Travels Assoc.
HWH Enterprises/Visionary Vehicles
Stanford University Press
Tibet Poverty Alleviation Fund
Tibet Women's Federation of China
Torana Arts
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Tibet, Bhutan
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

Group Exhibitions:
Imagining Ourselves — A Global Generation of Women. International Museum of Women, San Francisco. April 2006 (upcoming). www.imaginingourselves.org

Portraits of Tibetan Women Weavers. Tibet Women’s Federation, Lhasa, 2004.

Re-oriented: Asian American Women Artists. Berkeley, CA., January 1998.

Solo Exhibitions:

Beyond the Land of the Thunder Dragon: Metamorphosis of Bhutanese Textiles, Espanade Theaters on the Bay, Singapore Fringe Festival and United Nations Development Program, (UNDP) Bhutan, February 2006.

From Our Living Hands: Portraits of Tibetan Weavers and Their Works. Dropenling Craft Emporium, Lhasa, Tibet, June 2005. Torana Galleries, Beijing and Shanghai, September 2005. www.torana.com

A Woman’s World and Other Visions: Portraits of Contemporary Chinese Women’s Lives. The Esplanade, Huayi Festival of the Arts, Singapore, Jan-Feb 2005. www.esplanade.com

Portraits of Tibetan Women Weavers and Their Works.
Five Colors Earth, Beijing, China, September 2004.

exhibition photo from Esplanade, A Woman's World

In the Press:

A Glimpse Into Tibet

Chinese Women Behind the Lens

The Screen Turns to Chinese Women (pdf file)