William Yang is a pre-eminent Australian photographer known for an intensely sustained body of work that examines issues of cultural and sexual identity, and which unflinchingly documents the lives of his friends and community and his own lived experience with curiosity, sensitivity and humour. He is known in particular for his documentation of the Sydney LGBTIQ+ community from the 1970s onwards, including the evolution of the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras, and for photographic series engaging with the impact of HIV/AIDS, his sense of identity as a Chinese-Australian, and his family history and relationships. Self portrait with light meter alludes to Yang's role as a fly-on-the-wall social photographer and unofficial archivist of the Sydney club and party scene during the 1970s and early 1980s. More specifically, however, it signifies the emergence of an important, independent aspect of his art practice: the translation of his many photographs into autobiographical slideshows and spoken word performance works.
Purchased 2022
© William Yang
William Yang (age 44 in 1987)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
William Yang on his heritage and becoming a photographer in the 70s.
William Yang shares the stories behind his autobiographical self portraits that celebrate his cultural heritage and identity.
