Interview

Written By Editorial Team

Richard A. Yeung

Born in China, Richard A. Yeung at the age of three with his family moved to Hong Kong. His interest in design and architecture started at a very early age. He is well traveled in Europe and North America and inspired by every culture wherever he comes in contacted with. With more than 30 years in concept development and graphic design, he captures his subjects in their best possible manier and sometime fused them with graphic elements that transform his photo’s into a digital artworks. Richard interests in design does not bound to one field. Architecture; fashion; product; graphic; and concept etc. He created the vision in his head and made them in reality. He had been in graphic design for more than three decades and in between he designed homes, fashions for his friends and products for import companies in the Netherlands. Now retired, he pick up his camera and brought his visions and concepts to life. His first ongoing concept is “Naked Urban” a celebration of male nude in all major capitals of the world. And after 5 years, the numbers of his on going projects just keep on growing.

 

What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?

“I finished my masters in London at the age of 28. In Hong Kong, there I started working in a small advertising company. I handle every design project from A to Z. It was a very busy but educational period for me. I learned a lot about the commercial business in the real world. My designs always aimed at two aspects: design and functionality. I moved to the Netherlands in 1980. During the first eight years, my work mainly focused on product development. I designed household items, and also ranges of products in one theme such as golf. With that, I was also responsible for contacting with the manufacturers all over Europe. After 1988, I changed back to my pervious field, graphic design. I designed logos for my clients. I worked until I retired in 2020. In 2000, just for fun, I took a course in Visage in Amsterdam. After the course as I always did, I built up a complete portfolio in 6 months and montage to find myself an agent in Milan and one in Amsterdam and started working as hair and makeup artist for fashion editorials and as chef in different fashion shows. Because of this work, I came in contact with a lot of good photographers and planted a seed in my mind of the art of photographic. This is when I picked up my camera in 2010. My head spins with hundreds of ideas ready to be captured in reality.”

What inspires you?

“The beauty of our nature, world and architecture, old beliefs, culture and tradition. These are the things that inspire me. We live in this modern world with all our digital technologies and fast-food consumer culture that people do lose their sense of belonging. Everyone turns their mind directed to themselves, the me-culture centralize in their life. I hope my work opens up their mind, that have them sit back and really observe the world around them.”

What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?

“All my themes are created out of the subjects that inspired me. My first theme is "Naked Urban." A celebration of the beauty of the human body in the surrounding of the daily life. I like to show the man as is, without the confinement of clothing, being naked, it striped away all their social states, everyone are equal and proudly showing their true being in the world around them. As for the fascination of ancient believes & mythologic, I studies the stories in depth and bring in my documentation of the age of the gods to the age of men. With the series "Greek Mythologic" I bring 40 of the major gods to life. As a gay man, I am aware of the hardship of the LGBTQ community. In some countries they will still be put to death. Because of this pain, I created the serie "Ping Triangle" a no-nonsense documentation of the Love and Hate through Past Present and Future. There are no taboes in showing our diversity of Love but also a reminder we are not so different than the heterosexual counterparts. So for my works, there is no underlying deep hidden message for the viewers. My works are direct and showing whatever it is as it is.”

“So for my works, there is no underlying deep hidden message for the viewers. My works are direct and showing whatever it is as it is.”

How would you describe your work?

“My works in general are direct. I see the beauty in everything and try to capture it through my lens. With my graphic design background, I see architectures full of graphic lines and forms. I try to cut them perfectly in the frame of my images. As for my male body studies, I also like to add some graphic elements on the images during the post-production process to add extra dimension to the artwork. I see myself not just a photographer but a digital artist.”

Which artists influence you most?

“Most old masters do influence our works one way or another. When taking portrait, we always talk about the Rembrant's light on the face of the models. But there is one artist who influences me most. He was one of the top artist in the Netherlands photographic world. I am talking about Erwin Olaf. His works are always well stages to fit in the theme of the photos. So are a lot of my photo series Greek Mythology. The subjects are photographs in my studio and with post production works. I place them in the setting of what I see fitted as the god it portrays. A lot of Erwin's work are really at your face. They forced you to look at them in detail, feel the moment. This is what he inspired me for the series "Raw" and "Close Encounter" I capture the male forms in closeup and also engaging with each other. Some images will feel cold and disconnected while others you can feel the heat and the two models became one with just arms and legs all over.”

 What is your creative process like?

“I am blessed with a quick mind. As soon as an idea comes up, in no time I already can visualized the entire series of what it will be. I review the concept in different angles so that I do not miss out anything than started the process of bringing the idea to reality.”

What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?

“I do think an artist does play an important role in our society. We artists see things more sharply, no matter it is beautiful or ugly. We like to bring out our ideas ten times bigger and stronger than most people would think about. Some of our works will be mark as "Out of this world" by some art critics. But the point is we artist dare to create. It is this dare that makes us standing out and be influence. It is this dare that one can stick a banana on the wall and sell it for the price of a small island. This is also this dare that we can make everyone talking about certain subject we created. So, I do think that we do have a responsibility of using our works to reflect clearly what we want to say. That is what my works are, it is direct and to the point. Like some the Love images in my Pink Triangle series. Some of them will seen as taboo for the society but if you ask yourself honestly, you will be agree that all these images/tabooo also excess in the hetero world behind close door. So these images marked the goal of this serie, showing that LGBTQ is not much different than the hetero counterpart. We are just like everyone else.”

Have you had any noteworthy exhibitions you'd like to share?

“As I mentioned, I am quite new to this world, so I do not have many notable exhibitions. I only been took part in two general collective exhibitions: Gallery Mooi-man in Groningen (2022) and Gallery WIHH in Amsterdam (2023).”

 
Editorial Team
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