• Back view of a woman wearing an elaborate headdress with sticks and decorative elements, resembling a sunburst, on dark hair.
  • A person with metallic face paint and a microphone headset wearing shiny silver clothing, standing in front of a mirror, with another similarly dressed person in the background, in an indoor setting.

Alex Huda is a Canadian-born, South Asian writer, photographer, and filmmaker who explores the depth of identity and belonging through portraiture and film.

The New York Times logo in black gothic font on a white background.
Webby Award Nominee 2024 seal with spiral trophy icon on a blue background.

WE ARE THE THINGS MONSTERS LOVE

Alex Huda is photographing the evolution of the Voidpunk counterculture in Hong Kong.

What happens when the world tells you you're too queer, too strange—not human enough to exist?

In Hong Kong, the outcasts are rewriting the rules. They call it VOIDPUNK—where society's rejection doesn't destroy you. It ignites you.

They are not just rewriting the narratives - they are burning the old ones, to help reshape the boundaries of identity, belonging, and what it means to be seen.

We Are the Things Monsters Love is my long-term transmedia project about the Voidpunk counterculture.

It’s part documentary, part speculative fiction.

A person with long black hair and tribal face paint poses dramatically against an urban cityscape backdrop. They wear clothing with bold blue designs and have elongated, claw-like fingers.

When I transformed 18th-century Japanese monster scrolls into futuristic identities for Hong Kong's Voidpunk community, the archive became a living collaborator.

Resurrecting Monsters: How Archives Can Fuel Radical Storytelling


Black and white photo of three young boys in traditional attire on a historic street.

How I Got a Photo Book Publishing Deal

My dream job was pretty simple: travel the world, photograph diverse cultures, and get a photo book publishing deal that gets featured in The New York Times. Very specific, very clear, but also very hard to achieve.