Born and raised in Chinatown, New York City, Will Yan began working in the retail end of fashion, presenting the creations of high-end designers like Marc Jacobs, and household name brands like Levis and Nike, to his mostly upscale clientele. He eventually picked up a camera in 2008 to document his on-the-street encounters with fashion notables, which he featured on his self-titled blog. As the result of this exposure – and the many contacts he made along the way – Yan became one of the earliest Tumblr New York Fashion Week (NYFW) Men’s Creators, giving him access to fashion shows at Lincoln Center and Milk Studios. The relationships he’s built with many of today’s top designers are a key to his success in this fiercely competitive field, and Yan’s outstanding work now appears in GQ, Hyperblast, Oak Street Magazine, and other top publications.
“I still treat every gig and non-gig like it’s a personal project,” says Yan. “I shoot images for a client the same way I shoot them for myself. I believe in pointing my camera in front of what makes me happy. If you shoot enough things that make you happy, people will eventually recognize that. And, at the end of the day, if no one does, these images still make me happy and that’s all that matters. I try to capture fashion moments and pretty much whatever catches my attention. And I approach image making loosely, responding to the venue and the lighting design on the runway or backstage. It’s important to be open minded.” This freewheeling Zen approach, coupled with his uncanny eye for details, and a knack for capturing perfect moments, are what really constitutes Yan’s distinctive style.
“I first became seriously interested in photography during a Photography 101 class I had to take while studying art and advertising design at the College of Technology In Brooklyn, NY,” notes Yan. “Being exposed to the darkroom and seeing a print come to life is magical. I’ve also been inspired by the work of so many amazing photographers that my list could go on for days. However, it definitely includes Richard Avedon, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Lee Friedlander, Sergio Larrain, Saul Leiter, Irving Penn, Alex Webb, William Eggleston, William Klein, Gary Winogrand, Dan Winters, and Jeff Mermelstein. I’m inspired by all the genres they represent, and more. I don’t restrict myself in what life offers for me to capture.”
“Early in my career I was doing a log of free work,” continues Yan, “and that’s the way I was able to get noticed. People saw my free stuff or personal projects online and that’s what got me hired to do backstage, etc. Tumblr then reached out and asked me to join them for NYFW as a Content Creator—they brought together influencers, bloggers and photographers to create original content for their fashion website. After I’d shot and posted a lot of street style and organic fashion content and built a portfolio of fashion images, I started shooting for Timberland because they happened to notice someone on my website wearing their shoes. The Timberland connection led to a lot more work. I’ve also been fortunate enough to work for Oscar De La Renta, creating runway and backstage content, and that opened up more doors in working in NY Fashion Week, and gave me access to events at Lincoln Center and other major fashion venues. As a result of this expanding network, I met Dao-Yi Chow, founder and designer of the Public School New York City back in 2008, when he had a much smaller clothing line. That relationship has also helped expand my opportunities as a fashion photographer.”
“As far as equipment is concerned, I’ve been using a Canon 5D Mark III with prime lenses, and I decide what lens to carry for the day depending on the venue and/or show for NYFW,” says Yan. I normally pack light—one camera and one lens and sometimes an extra lens in my bag. Normally that’s a Canon 35mm f/1.4L and a canon 85mm f/1.2L. If I’m shooting backstage or covering a presentation where I need to capture the atmosphere as well as the clothes, the Canon 24mm f/1.4L is a winner all around. Why prime lenses? Fashion Week is like a jungle and exploring it with prime lenses forces you to focus on what you’re trying to shoot—a makeup scene, a runway scene, getting hair done, etc. With prime lenses you move your feet instead of a zoom ring, to zone in and capture the visceral presence of a scene without being too visible. Prime lenses are non-intimidating, and that lets you get more intimate images that are often of higher technical quality. Lately, I’ve also been shooting with a Fujifilm X-Pro 2, and APS-C-format mirrorless camera. I love the traditional buttons and compact, ergonomic form factor that remind me of shooting film in my Leica M6 TTL, and it delivers image quality comparable to a full frame. ”
Shooting Fashion Week: What It’s Like Behind The Lens
“If you want to get into this business it can be really intimidating,” admits Yan. “You have to be prepared; you have to have fast lenses, a high-speed memory card, and a quick eye to capture those fleeting moments. Responsiveness is the most important characteristic both for the camera and the photographer. You have to be able to anticipate moments—that’s how you can capture candid moments such as the telling interactions between designers and models. When covering the runway you have to shoot in a way that represents the garment—a pleated pants look, the way a dress flows—must express the garment, and well as expressing your personal style as a photographer.”
“Runway is all about the energy and excitement of the clothes that come onto the runway,” asserts Yan, “and the way the models are able to express themselves in their clothes to make a fashion statement. You get to see all the latest trends in makeup, silhouettes, and much more. It’s all about art and personal expression. Some people dismiss fashion as narcissistic and superficial, but I emphatically disagree. If some individuals project fashion in those ways it’s a reflection of who they are, not on fashion itself. Fashion is important because each fashion designer has his or her own point of view on how people present themselves in the world. Traditionally, they’ve also had to keep their creations under wraps until the moment they’re released to the public, but in today’s social media age things are different. Brands and fashion are now more inclusive, and they want to give a more behind the scenes look to everything they do. That’s why it’s very important for fashion photographers to build relationships with the designers and the brands so they’re able to tell stories for the brand via the images they create—being able to project an authentic and compelling image is crucial. These images enable you to get into their world—to see how designers express their point of view, to build a story behind their brand and create an image and a style that people can buy into.”
“Essentially fashion is life as art and art as life,” Yan observes philosophically. “We absorb everything from what we see and then use it to create something that is beyond and yet part of our own experience. An example would be the grittiness and vibrancy of life in an inner-city environment. From the designer’s perspective, the goal is to identify these elements and consciously infuse these aspects, and others, into a cohesive brand identity. A good example is Uniqlo, a clothing brand that’s been working with Andy Warhol Foundation Graphics on t-shirts—connecting street art and fine art to crate t-shorts that are very much like canvasses. This particular project has been very successful so far, and they plan to add other artists to their t-shirt repertoire.”
“Now that I’m back in the States, I’ll definitely be covering the upcoming Fashion Week in New York,“ affirms Yan. “For the past 2 months I’ve been traveling all over Asia—from Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing to the Philippines. I’m planning to release a ‘zine, a handmade book of my travels. Over the course of this trip I’ve noticed that even when I’m not shooting fashion, there’s always a fashion graphic way that I approach image making—like when I capture the floral patterns on a Hawaiian shirt I see on the street. There’s always a fashion element in what I do. Going forward I think I’ll end up shooting more editorial images, and more portraits of fashion insiders. It’s a great way to give more life to the designers, to make them more human and reveal their passion—I want to humanize them by photographing them in their element.”
“Among my greatest accomplishments was being able to work with Leica, an iconic brand that lives at the intersection of fine art and technology,” notes Yan. “This is pretty big for a student who went through graphic ad design and took Photography 101-:) The camera my teacher was using was a Leica and I was impressed with the way so many legendary photographers have used it to crate great images. Being able to purchase a Leica and then to debut the Leica X-1, to partner with them on launching a camera and doing workshops with them, was truly a fun experience. I am grateful for being able to work with a camera brand with so much history, and the relationships we established make me feel very good.
It’s all part of being recognized for who I am and what I shoot—that’s a big deal for me as a New Yorker. In the end, I am a photographer who captures life as the situation presents itself—there is no specific agenda except to have fun and document what touches the heart.
