about | Tian Yang

I was born in Tianjin, China in 1982 and immigrated to its Sister City in the United States—Philadelphia—in my early twenties. I received a Licence en Arts Plastiques (French undergraduate degree in Visual Arts) from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Being a huge admirer of Czech photographers Josef Koudelka and Josef Sudek, I went on to pursue my MFA in Photography at the Film and Television School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU) in the Czech Republic.

Inspired by a life experience navigating through various cultures, my photographic project "Encountering Czechia" investigates cultural identity under the increasing influence of globalization. Cultural authenticity, cultural myth, nation building, boundary maintaining, multiculturalism and cosmopolitanism are topics of my special interest. I photograph with a large format camera on 8"x10" color transparency film. Then, by means of 3D printing and LED circuitry design, I build a light box to hold and present each sheet of film. These light box photographs share a kinship with the historic photographic process of Daguerreotype, because both processes result in one-of-a-kind art objects that are physically intimate and aesthetically mesmerizing.

I worked as the Photography Fellow at Dartmouth College from 2018 to 2021 and then the Photography & Printmaking Technical Manager at Dartmouth from 2021 to 2024. Currently, I am the Photography & Digital Studios Coordinator at the University of Vermont. I had been a large-city-dweller by birth and upbringing, via international migration and throughout my higher education experiences, whereas in New England my closer proximity to rural America has exposed me to subcultural activities such as agricultural fairs and taxidermy competitions. These fascinating human activities have become the new focal point of my analog camera and artistic research.

Thank you for visiting this website. If you'd like to further connect, please don't hesitate to email me at: tian@tianyang.us

Tian

Dec. 2024

South Burlington, Vermont