A regular contributor to Rolling Stone, Wired, and ESPN Magazine, young photographer Peter Yang emerged out of the Austin journalism world and hit the ground running full-force with his masterfully lit, intimate portraits of political figures, actors, rock stars and cowboys. Peter chats with PICTURE in his cozy Brooklyn workspace about his roundabout path towards editorial success, and shares some tips on the dos and don’ts of photography.
This awesome guest article was contributed by Anna Sian, who normally writes for Picture Magazine. This article has been generously contributed to Photocritic as a sample of the writing you’ll find in Picture (a bit more about the magazine can be found at the bottom of this article)
WHERE DID YOUR PASSION FOR PHOTOGRAPHY START?
I went to the University of Texas in Austin, where I was a business major. I had to get in a suit three times a week and go to meetings and career fairs – it was all pretty depressing and I had no idea what I wanted to do. I saw a tryout for the student newspaper (which ended up being a big paper, and their photographers win a lot of Pulitzers) tried out for it, never really having taken a picture before, and I had a point and shoot camera.
I think I was just too ignorant to be intimidated by it all – I was just happy to be there. But I worked really hard and it was something I felt really passionate about, and I started seeing pictures everywhere, that I’d never noticed before. So that’s how I got started, taking the journalism route at the beginning.
AFTER SCHOOL, DID YOU ASSIST SOMEONE? HOW DID YOU LEARN?
I got a job at a newspaper coming out of school and I assisted myself a lot. I would read magazines, look at pictures, and try to figure out how they did it. There are things that took years to figure out that I think an assistant could have gotten by just asking a simple question, but the process of making so many mistakes trying to figure things out.
I went through about 900 different styles during that process, any gimmicky thing you can think of, I tried. Actually, there’s just kind of no replacing actually doing it yourself. Having not assisted, it was tough at first because I was doing it all roundabout and backwards, but I think in the end, it worked out.
HOW DID YOU GET YOUR FOOT IN THE EDITORIAL DOOR?
I come from a rich family. I just sent loads and loads of cash and they hired me. I’m actually much in debt right now. No, um…I feel really blessed that I started the way that I did. Well, while I was working at the newspaper I was based out in Texas and I was considered a regional photographer. And I started working for Texas Monthly which I had always heard was a mg that was always respected around the country – I knew a lot of people shot for them, Keith Carter, Mary Ellen Mark, Jeff Minton, and all these folks today.
Scott Dadich was there at the time, now the Creative Director at Wired. He was pretty new there and I think he liked what I was doing and so he called me for a shoot and I did another and they got bigger and bigger. It was fortunate for me to start that way, because he really encouraged me to experiment. And it was like someone was paying or me to do personal work.
Everyone has a label on their heads. Every time you see someone, you can read two words about them. People just have to know you as the Texas guy, the funny guy, the quirky guy, the dramatic lighting guy, the guy you call when no one else is available, guy or gal, whatever it is. I always encourage people who call me to really figure out how to conquer their market before they try this. But I guess if you’re already here, and you’ve already done it, you just assist.
All my first assistants, when they’re ready to go out on their own, I always put them in touch with all the editors I think they would work well with. And they usually have a relationship with them somehow already. But starting from scratch can be pretty tough.
SO HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR STYLE NOW?
I’ve been shooting for about 10 years, and I’ve been doing this kind of magazine stuff for about 5 years. When I started out, I think I was a much quirkier photographer. I never wanted to take a picture that didn’t have a point of view or a sense of humor, always looking for something a little bit off, or a little different. I think where that made some really good images, it was also a point of undue stress.
I figured out eventually that not every shot has to have a punchline. It could just be a nice intimate portrait of someone, and I think that’s what really helped me where I am now. I do try to find something interesting or funny to say but if its just a really kickass picture or a nicely lit picture of someone, that’s fine too.
DO YOU PREFER STUDIO LIGHTS TO NATURAL LIGHTS?
All of my pictures are lit in one way or another. The more I do this, the more i’m allowing the natural light to get in there somehow. and if the natural light isn’t available, I create light from natural situations.
I think a big difference between pictures now and a few years ago is that there’s always kind of a light where the sun would be overhead and behind a little. It takes a lot of gear, really long stands and big booms and all this stuff just to get a light that’s way up – it almost always simulates the sun shining dwn on someone. I feel like actually it looks a bit more natural even though its more lit than it happens to be.
HOW DO YOU USUALLY APPROACH A SHOOT?
The way I usually approach it is to do a lot of research on the subject, you know, with wikipedia and everything, you can find out all this stuff about people and you find out later that everything is not necessarily true, but at least you think them, going in. I usually try to find a location that is cool and that has different options. I try to bring props, and I have an idea of what I want but it’s not very often that I go into a shoot with exactly planned out. When a photo editor wants to say exactly what they want, I love it.
Because I can go in and get that shot and then I can do something that I think is cool too, and half the time, they love what I thought was cool.
As far as how a shoot goes, it really depends, because I do a fair amount of editorial but also a good amount of advertising too, and they’re just two completely different things in production. But at the very least there’s two or three assistants and a couple of carts worth of lights. I always try to keep it as simple as possible and stay low key.
HOW IS SHOOTING CELEBS DIFFERENT FROM SHOOTING ORDINARY PEOPLE?
It’s vastly different. It’s very much like you’re working ideas out with the publicist, there’s a set time that you have, you chat a little bit but both of you are working, they’re there to promote their new movie or their new album and you’re there to get the best picture you can. I think I get along with everyone, we click in a photographic way and once in a while, on a personal level.
SO YOU AND BARACK ARE TIGHT?
Yeah, we’re buddies. I feel like we clicked, but I kinda feel like, watching him, that he clicks with everyone. It’s usually not the bigger names—it’s someone I have a common interest with. Like when I shot Dana White, from the Ultimate Fighting Championship. I was really into martial arts and we talked about that.
WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU’RE NOT TAKING PICTURES?
I like to read books and watch movies and take walks on the beach. But more recently, I’ve been making stuff out of wood.
ANY FINAL WORDS OF ADVICE?
I think it’s important to be really persistent. And constantly creating your work – I used to do a ton of it, I used to shoot every day and find a reason to shoot something, and sometimes it would just be like, a macro picture of a lego guy, but it was a picture. I find that a lot of people don’t shoot enough.
If you don’t feel the want and the motivation to be shooting all the time, you have to really ask yourself if this is what you want to do; because that kind of enthusiasm decreases over time and if you’re already not feeling it– and people will say things like “well if I can just get someone to hire me, and I don’t even have to get paid, they can just assign me something to shoot and I’ll shoot it” – well that’s not how it works. You have to prove that you can do it. It’s just way too competitive, and if you don’t have that kind of desire, you’re probably not going to make it. So keep taking personal pictures.
And everyone has pictures of their friends. It’s sort of like the young hipster portrait, with natural light or something. Some are better than others, but you see that a lot. And then there are people who take pictures of a funky or weird looking guy. Don’t do that. What you should find are images that really tell a compelling story. I would just say stay away from the homeless people or a portfolio comprised of all of your friends that are under the age of 19. Diversify.
See Peter Yang’s Website for more of his photography
About Picture Magazine
Maybe you’re stuck in the prehistoric ages and you have yet to flip through the pages of Picture Magazine. Evolve! A leader in the photographic marketplace, Picture is as much a creative inspiration to emerging photographers as it is a valuable industry resource for the professional shooter. In circulation for over 15 years, the magazine continues to shine. Honored for photographic achievement in design and editorial vision, Picture has been nominated for a “Lucie Award” for best photography magazine by the International Photographic Awards.
The magazine’s great visual detail is what Creative Director Yukina Korenaga is all about. Since March 2008, Korenaga has wedded bold graphics and provocative imagery to editorial content designed to inspire, educate and support its readers. Korenaga, a native of Osaka, Japan, studied magazine publishing and advertising communications at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.
Korenaga creates luminous spreads which feature photomarket updates and bi-coastal studio reviews, reviews of photography in recent advertising campaigns, annual photo school reviews and roundtable forums, equipment, stock photography, news, and current trends. Her expertise covers much ground, from creative layouts to styling of photoshoots. Korenaga’s extraordinary creative vision coupled with the acuity of an accomplished team of editors makes for a smart, timely, and inspired photo source.
Picture magazine is a bi-monthly NYC-based national photo industry publication, providing news, calendar, and event information, photographer profiles and interviews, advertising and magazine reviews, digital and Internet columns, and equipment and product information. The magazine has grown tremendously over the past fifteen years to emerge as an acute, intuitive and valuable monthly photo industry resource. Picture fills the niche for a smart and insightful look into the current photography market. For further information and subscriptions, visit the Picture Magazine website.
It may be that you need permission to take photographs in some public places. In some cases, this can mean the difference between you owning the images or not (i.e. if you have climbed over a wall or trespassed, you may find yourself in court with no rights to your own photos)
Urban landscapes become a completely new landscape at night. Everything changes. A city that is featureless and dull in sunlight can be an exciting, vibrant scene full of character that presents good opportunities to an urban photographer.
Things I particularly enjoy about this design is that it is modular, and almost entirely Widgets-driven. That means that the 4 menu type things on the home page, the ‘featured articles’ on the homepage, the ‘Recent Flickr’ thingies in the right-hand menu bar on article pages (like the page you’re looking at now) etc can be added, removed, and moved about without touching any code.
Let’s start off with a bit of a disclaimer – The old photography processes aren’t as straight forward as clicking a button: The worst damage you can do to yourself with a digital camera is knocking yourself in the head (yeah, James, I’m looking at you) or falling off a cliff. Working with wetplates means you’re handling a lot of chemicals and suchlike – you need to understand which of the chemicals are dangerous, and which ones are less so.
Go and get the glass plate, with dried eggy bits, from the kitchen, wiping off the half-pound of dust that’s fallen on it since, and take it the bathroom, your magic and marvellous darkroom. This, in true Blue Peter fashion, has been prepared earlier: the floor is covered in black bin bags, which are covered with newspaper, and the bath is lined with the same.
Four minutes is almost here. Find the dorky torch. (The LED headlamp thingy, with a red filter on, that makes everyone looks dorky, but works a treat as a darkroom light.) Close the bathroom door and put a towel along the gap. Marvel at how bright it is with the dorky torch. Realise you’ve left the light on. Open door, turn off light, turn off hall light, close door, apply towel.
Put the glass into a black tray, with water above and below it, and look at it in good light. If you got it right (ahahahaha) then it will show up as a perfectly exposed positive, with the clear parts black and the highlights white, and a lovely range of warm silvery greys inbetween. An ambrotype is a very thin negative, that, on black, reverses out to positive (yes, it’s magic.) They are often framed sitting against black velvet, or you can enamel the back, so that it looks like a positive without being in a black tray of water. If it’s over-exposed, then the highlights and midtones are going to be dense and solid. You might be able to print it with modern silver gelatin paper, and treat it like a thin negative. But that’s a fuss for another day.
Well, I’ll be damned…
John has had an interest in photography ever since he was a kid. Like so many of us, his passion was ignited by being given a camera for Christmas. Dabbling off and on, he became more serious about photography when he was at university, and started using a Canon EOS 500, following a photo journalism course. Of course, this degenerated into doing darkroom work, and he has been hooked ever since.
Other cool projects John and I have a common love for is 
“I originally set up my photo blog as a way to be proactive with my photographs and show my family what I was doing.”, John explains. “I was taking hundreds of photos and leaving them on my hard drive”. Which, to be honest, is not a particularly useful thing to do with your photos. Interestingly, it turned out that more people than just his family started paying attention “I’ve been receiving more and more comments lately and I really enjoy that people are returning to look at my images”. The first tastes of internet success aren’t enough yet though, grins John, and lets the cat out of the bag; “I’d like to hold a real exhibition in the future but I think I’d be too indecisive of which images to include.”
Seeing some of John’s photos, you’d think he uses full-on professional equipment – but not-at-all: “I have a variety of cameras that I like to use. My primary camera is a Nikon D70, but I always have my Holga 120 with me. I have a few lenses for my Nikon, a 50mm 1.4, the standard 18-70 3.5, and a 80-300 zoom lens. Recently I’ve been using a Mamiya 645j with a 80mm prime lens, as I’m trying to get back into film. I have a small tripod I use and multiple memory cards and batteries.”
Just think about it – you’re in a dodgy-looking room, with crappy backgrounds, poor lighting, and the dances normally last only for about 90 seconds at the time. The people you are trying to photograph aren’t just moving – they’re moving fast (which necessitates a fast shutter speed), in 5 dimensions (back / forward, left/right, up/down, around each other, and in time), and they’re on the dance-floor with anything up to 10 other couples, who twirl their way in front of your lens just when you think you’ve got the killer shot lined up.
Anyway – I have to honestly admit that there is very little point to this post – I just figured it’s been a while since I last posted anything, and I wanted to share some of my not-very-good photographs with you guys…
You know how it goes – you want to find a photo of the Mona Lisa, so you go onto Google Images, you type in Mona Lisa, and you get hundreds of results. But what if you have an image, and you want to find out what it is of? Or what if you want to find out where else on the world wide interwebs this image is used? Cue Idee’s Tineye.com, an image search engine.
Start a search, and Tineye.com will find how many times this picture has been represented on the internet – a feat accomplished by comparing images pixel-by-pixel, and creates a so-called “digital fingerprint” for each image found, determining which pictures are similar to the one you searched for.
For now, however, the limited search index meant that the first photo I entered into the search engine, did not return any results, even though it was sourced from photocritic.org.
The final search was done with a detail of the head of Venus (picture on the right, the original used for this review is 
Photojournalist James Nachtwey is considered by many to be the greatest war photographer of recent decades. He has covered conflicts and major social issues in more than 30 countries. Last year, he won a $100,000 prize, which he decided to re-invest into a special project… A story he felt needed to be told, which no magazine wanted to support or fund.
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“My husband Mike has had a talent for photography for over 20 years”, Lisa Burkhart recalls, explaining why she decided to get into photography – but while Mike was off photographing beautiful sunsets, stunning landscapes and other things of conventional beauty, Lisa decided to look a little bit beyond.
“People keep telling us that beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, Lisa laments, and wonders why so many photographers seem drawn to the same things. Surely, there should be a stronger sense of fun and individuality about all of it? Looking beyond colourful butterflies, fields of daisies, perfect rain drenched red roses, and vibrant sunsets, Lisa explains she has a different vision: “I am drawn to the “less obvious” beauty. The allure of an old abandoned house has much beauty and mystery with the tattered, torn curtains that flow like ribbons in the breeze through the busted out windows.”
So what better way to re-immortalise these memories, than with a photographic fervour? “What about that big, old, tangled, spooky tree that gives out an eerie presence”, Lisa wonders, “We’ve all seen them, the one that when you see it you reflect back on your childhood and have vivid images of that huge beautiful, dark, scary tree that stalked you from outside of your bedroom window… The tree with shadowy branches that looked like long arms reaching for you, making you pull the covers over your head and pray for daybreak.”
