Celebrity Photographer, Photographer of Celebrities, Artist
Russell Wong, the renowned photographer, is among the few Asians to break into the notoriously difficult Hollywood movie industry. This ‘Opera Estate boy’ has worked with top celebrities including Joan Chen, Cindy Crawford, Matt Dillon, Isabella Rossellini, Tom Cruise, Oliver Stone, Michael Jackson, Andrew Lloyd Weber, Glenn Close, Bruce Willis and Jackie Chan. He came to Temasek Design School to share his work and business experiences, in particular, to answer the students’ Burning Questions.
His journey in photography started as a hobby, with his interest primarily set on taking photographs of athletes and basketball players. The shot that got his career in photography going was when his photograph of rising track star, Sebastian Coe, was selected for the front cover of Track & Field News magazine in Jan 1982. Over time, he progressed from sports photography to fashion photography, taking photographs of famous pop stars and working with renowned directors on some notable films.
Contrary to general belief, Russell said, “Asian photographers get remembered in the industry.” His forthright and focused style can be seen in his work but telling quirky jokes with great impersonations of people surely must have helped too. Russell gave some serious advice to those aspiring to careers in photography.
- Make necessary preparations in advance of the shoot
- Learn to have control over your camera and your photography subject
- Do research and understand the background and special preferences of your photography subject before embarking on the photo shoot
- Take up self-initiated projects in your leisure time
He ended his very visual session with an anecdote about meeting up again with the now Lord Sebastian Coe in Singapore just last year and recreating that life changing shot that he did in 1981. As with so many of his stories, there were elements of persistence, some hard work, some luck, great focus and truthfulness to his subject . Indeed his continuing pursuit of what really interests him makes him celebrity photographer, photographer of celebrities and a dedicated artist. With plans underway for directing his first feature film, this ‘Opera Estate boy’ is certainly someone to watch out for .
