About Ivy Yung

The first time is always the most unforgettable. I remember my first time coming across that thing called a photograph, it was a black and white headshot of my father, which was hanging on the wall in our living room. It is also the same photograph being used on his gravestone. I never had the chance to meet my father in person, he passed away when I was a baby. My only memory of him was that photograph – the only thing I clung onto, and am still able to relate to visually, even after almost 40 years now gone by. This is what I love most about photography, it connects the past to the future, it gives one something to cling to, it is magical and powerful.

My passion for photography started when I was a teenager. It was still the period of using film cameras. My friends and I would spend hours preparing for a shoot, visiting abandoned places, jumping off from a 6 feet wall just to escape from our imaginary fears. When it came time to decide my major at the university, I struggled and ended up choosing business over photography, for the reason of not wanting to disappoint my mother. It took me years and years to realize my regret.

I buried this passion over my adulthood. Only recently did it resurface, and I have decided to pick it back up again. At the end of June, I bought my first SLR digital camera, and I have loved it more than my KitchenAid.

As much as I love taking portraits with my subjects posed, I also love to capture candids of my subjects. I even love blurry pictures as long as the personality, feelings and emotions are delivered. I am not so hung up on the technical aspects of photography, but place higher value on the image itself. My work is not “picture perfect” in the conventional sense. I concentrate on the beauty within them and am able to find their best presentation. My friend James once said to me and it speaks my mind, “Would you rather listen to mediocre music on a good stereo, or would you rather listen to Teresa Teng on a modest stereo? I’ll take the good music on the modest stereo; same with photography.”

[Written in 2013]