By Jacqueline Tobin

Flora Hanitijo wants to settle down for a bit. It's no wonder, given her background: born in Hong Kong, raised on the peninsula of Macau, she emigrated to Montreal, Canada, as a teenager and spent a brief stint in Paris at age 26. Currently, she's based in New York.

"I've moved around so much my whole life and never felt very grounded," she admits. That may explain why her images hint at vague memories here, nostalgic moments there. Maybe it explains why she likes to shoot a variety of subjects—portraits, landscapes, music, fashion. She describes her landscapes as "autoportraits" even though she's not in them—no one is. "I like to shoot portraits without having people in them. There's a place, there's an energy there," she says. "It all comes from me having moved so much in the past and the fact that I'm always looking for a home. For me a landscape of trees, or a row of buildings, depict where I've been and who I am to a certain degree."

Her clients describe her work as soft, sensitive, and atmospheric. Hanitijo herself describes her images as "Intimate. I've been very lucky that most people like what I'm doing," she says.

After graduating Cooper Union in Manhattan, Hanitijo spent several years assisting for "everyone" and worked on a lot of fashion spreads. For the past year and a half she's shot for editorial clients like W, Nylon and Surface. "My advice to young photographers," she offers, "is to do what I did—build a client list and get a rep." She also takes photos every day. "I always have my little point-and-shoot Yashica on me wherever I go. It's my sketchbook. Keep shooting what interests you and what you want to shoot and eventually the work will come."

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