Asian Men Are Beautiful: Norm Yip, His Art & Vision (I of II)

 I’ve mentioned and linked the work of artist and photographer Norm Yip on BAP Blog before.

I tend to be drawn by simplicity in art – distillations..  His models and subjects are presented without complication, directly, and without excessive visual noise.  In several of his projects, ones featured here, he photographs Asian men, capturing them in moments of sexual form and beauty.

With an eye for the shot and his technical mastery behind the lens, Norm is a leading voice in the counternarrative.  It’s with great pleasure that I am able to bring his personal perspective to you today.

BAP:    Hi Norm, welcome. I’ve done a post on you before on the BAP Blog which many of the readers liked. It’s on the Asian Male Project. For the uninitiated could you please introduce yourself and explain what the project is?

NY:     I was born in Canada to Chinese parents. My mother is from Hong Kong and my father is from Canton, China. I am an artist by heart. I am a visual person. I studied art in Saskatchewan and architecture in Toronto and worked as an architect off and on for several years after graduating, but I realized that my passion lied in both the fine arts and photography. 

In 1999, while in Hong Kong, several friends of mine got together and rented out a small space that would eventually become the playing ground for my painting and photography. It was shortly thereafter that I began photographing my Asian friends; the idea initially was to try to emulate the work of American photographer Herb Ritts, in particular his black and white work with male nudes. I started to post my work online and within a few years, I had gained many fans that were eager to see Asian men as attractive and desirable. It was definitely new and refreshing. 

In 2005, I published my first photography book ‘The Asian Male – 1.AM‘ on the subject of Asian male nudes/semi-nudes, and a follow-up book ‘The Asian Male – 2.AM‘ in 2007. Both books were considered revolutionary at the time. Asian men for the first time was being explored as artistic and tasteful subjects of photography. After taking a long break from publishing, I released my third photography book ‘The Asian Male – 3.AM‘ in 2014, which documents the evolution of my photography of Asian men.

BAP:     Let’s have a closer look.  Talk to us a bit about the tech and mental process that goes into producing these pieces.

“Milkboy”

Loren, No. 1 and 4 – Part of my technique in photographing the nude against a minimal black or grey backdrop is to have the model go from standing to sitting, then crouching and finally lying positions. It gives variety to poses other than the ubiquitous standing pose. In addition to that, there is an infinite number of choices on what one can do given that lighting can move or shift within each of the poses. With Loren, the approach was exactly the same. The photograph on the left was the result from the standing position and the right in the sitting position. Fellow artist Richard Winkworth visited my studio to see my work and we talked about these two photographs. He described the sitting pose as such: it’s as if someone had suddenly just walked into the room while he was undressed but it has left him completely unshaken. I think that describes Loren to the point, with his haughty expression, full of confidence. The standing pose however takes on a slightly different feeling, conveying a sense of foreboding and uncertainty in spite of the relaxed contrapposto stance. Because of this ambiguity, I find the photograph intriguing, and one of the most sophisticated nudes I have ever taken.

Milkboy – Above any other photographs I’ve done, this image of Derek Chong with milk poured over his body is one of the most memorable images I have had the honor and privilege to be a part of. The idea came to me over the course of several months, thinking about what I could do with Derek. Partly inspired by Richard Avedon’s superb photograph Swarm, I thought of something similar and instructed Derek to remain poised and serious throughout the shoot. Our first attempt was unsuccessful. In our second attempt, my business partner accidentally dumped the whole carton of milk over him in one go even; it was supposed to drizzle down slowly on his body. Everyone kept silent when suddenly Derek lost his composure and burst into laughter while I continued shooting. While it wasn’t what I initially envisioned, the best image of Derek was captured right then and there.

Part II of II – Norm Yip Interview

2.am

3.am

Asian Male – Amazon book link