Michaela Mitchum
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About the Artist
Michaela Mitchum is a San Francisco based creative director and artist whose work lives at the meeting point of nature, storytelling, and technology. She began her career behind the camera as a photographer for National Geographic, where she was named Youth Photographer of the Year, before moving into film as a creative director on projects including the BBC’s Planet Earth and collaborations with Sony and Fujifilm. Her work has been featured in The New York Times and National Geographic and recognized by Fujifilm.
Today, Michaela leads The Eldest Daughter, a creative agency that builds creative visions for companies across tech, fashion, startups, and Fortune 500 brands. She is also a founding board member and creative director of Art Bloc Sausalito, a nonprofit bringing the arts to underprivileged youth across the Bay Area. She splits her time between San Francisco, New York, and Southern California.
About the Work
High above the San Francisco skyline, The Lights come alive.
Michaela filmed this footage in the remote Arctic landscapes of Sweden and Norway while on assignment with National Geographic and Sony. Standing beneath the Aurora Borealis, she witnessed one of the most breathtaking phenomena on Earth: ribbons of green and violet light rippling across the night sky, born from the meeting of solar wind and our planet’s atmosphere.
Few people will ever stand under the aurora in person. With this piece, Michaela set out to change that, bringing the magic of the Arctic sky to the heart of San Francisco so that anyone, anywhere in the city, can look up and experience it.
The work is a meeting of two worlds. The aurora is nature at its most ancient and awe inspiring, while the Salesforce Tower stands as a symbol of the innovation San Francisco has pioneered. Here, technology becomes the canvas that carries nature’s light to everyone. It is a reminder of how extraordinary our natural world is, and how essential it is that we protect it.
For Michaela, the piece is a love letter to San Francisco. It’s the city where she first went out on her own and truly began to push herself, both as an artist and in her career. San Francisco has become home, and The Lights is her way of giving back to the community that shaped her, and of sharing something truly spectacular with everyone who looks up.