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I then went to an art school in Los Angeles, where my formal training began, along with my exposure to Hollywood. I improved my portfolio massively and brought it to a more competitive level with images of top models, young celebrities such as Robert Downey Jr., and established film directors such as David Lynch.
WHAT'S IN MY PORTFOLIO
What’s In My Portfolio: Russel Wong
by Russel Wong
04 Sep 2019
04 Sep 2019
My story as a photographer began with shooting for Nike and sports icons when I was at the University of Oregon. This got me on track to being a professional photographer. I shot my first international cover during this stage, which was a great encouragement for me at a young age.
With a good portfolio in hand, I returned to Singapore and set up a studio to do mostly advertising work for clients such as Singapore Airlines. This was my business period —although I still did celebrity portraits.
An opportunity to work with Jackie Chan came next, which led to doing more work for the Hong Kong and Asian film industry. I spent time in China and Hong Kong, shooting the likes of Zhang Ziyi, Michelle Yeoh and Chow Yun-fat, and working with top directors such as Ang Lee and Zhang Yimou.
This was an amazing chapter during which we made a global statement with “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” I also began shooting the first of my many Time magazine covers. I spent long hours on movie locations and shot film posters, which I really enjoyed.
The next chapter was more for myself; I started shooting fine art prints of Asian landscapes that I sold at Christie’s. I was back to what I loved best — just me shooting with a large-format camera.
I had to do it for my soul. This led to my Kyoto book on geishas, a work in progress over the past 10 years.
The recent chapter would be shooting the publicity for “Crazy Rich Asians,” of which I was a part since its inception. I’m back shooting at home — I love and feel proud to be part of it.
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