Photographer
Brian HK Chan
Brian HK Chan has really made a name for himself in Hong Kong’s blogging community. His warm and bright personality radiates from everything he does and is clearly shown in his photography. Some of his work has been featured in PhotoVogue Vogue Italia, and Glacier Magazine. What’s even more amazing about him is his new, Confidence Is Key Campaign, where he uses his talent as a photographer to help instill confidence in teenagers. In addition to all of his amazingness, he is also a full time medical student at one of the most prestigious universities in Hong Kong.
That is what I always wanted to do.
You are a very unique photographer in that sense. There are a lot of commercial photographers right now. They value quantity over quality. I mean - that is the commercial world and there is nothing wrong with that. But I do think that some photographers do it because of the fame and what comes after. They don’t really think about the consequences of whom they photograph or what they photograph.
Describe yourself in three words. Confident, enthusiastic, and passionate. I always use those three words for applications. Why did you start photography? Okay, so I started at around 2 years ago when I was in New Mexico, and I have always wanted to start before that but I didn’t have time or the freedom to when I was in Hong Kong. Once abroad, I had the independence and the time to do whatever I wanted. The aim and initial mission was to make photography, especially for high school students, more of a normal activity instead of just for the typical pretty girl. At that time, there were only three or four photography pages that were all focused on the pretty girls and I wanted to break that stereotype because I like breaking stereotypes. So I just came from a point of view that goes against tradition and doing something
5
How do you choose who you photograph? If you have noticed, I don’t shoot any professional models. This is because some of the photographers shoot people who are already in agencies. I aim to shoot people so that they can get into the agency. What I look for in people is their personalities and if they are fun to be around with. I don’t want to waste too much time on a shoot especially with people I don’t like in a way or I can’t click with. So I always tend to talk with them on Facebook first to see whether or not our personalities are a match. If we do then, I just shoot them. I don’t really look through their profiles to see their photos or whatever. I see if they are good people. For shoots where people approach me, it’s quite different because they want something out of it and I always feel like when somebody else wants something out of it, I have to live up to their expectations. It won’t be a fun shoot anymore, its ends up being more like for work.