Pro Series: Celebrities Through the Lens of Time with Russel Wong

Important Notice

This programme is open to members of the National Library Board, Singapore. Please ensure you have your myLibrary username on hand before proceeding with the registration. If you do not have a myLibrary username, you can create one here: https://account.nlb.gov.sg/.

About the programme

In this Pro Series: Analogue Photography talk, prolific fashion and portrait photographer Russel Wong will share about his journey with the craft through the years. From when he got his start in 1980 with photographs published in Track & Field News magazine, up to 2006 when he switched to digital photography, delve deeper into the behind-the-scenes process of making his most iconic photographs.
 
Along with a chronological walkthrough of his notable photoshoots with celebrities, Russel will touch base with his analogue workflow in detail and the challenges for making each image, as well as how he received each assignment.

About the speaker

Russel Wong is one of the most profiled photographers in Singapore and Asia with 17 TIME covers to date. It was through his love for Track and Field since the age of 12 that he enrolled at the University Of Oregon where he started his photography career. Russel later branched out as a fashion photographer in Los Angeles and has gone on to shoot for publications like TIME, Italian VOGUE, ELLE, New York Times and now enjoys the acclaim of being the first Singaporean to break into the notoriously difficult Hollywood movie industry. He is also one of an elite group of photographers assigned to photograph covers for Time magazine, 17 to date. He has also worked with Oscar winning directors like Ang Lee, and Zhang Yimou and have created images for their posters and publicity on movies like the Oscar winning “ Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon “, “ Hero “ and “ House Of Flying Daggers “ and Golden Lion winner in Venice “ Lust Caution “. Popularly noted for his photographs of celebrities like Richard Gere, Jackie Chan, U2, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi and Jet Li. His limited edition prints have also been sold at the prestigious Christie’s auction house. In 2021, his works featuring Kyoto’s geishas called ‘Russel Wong In Kyoto ‘ was exhibited at the Asian Civilisations Museum In Singapore. Russel also had a cameo in the box office hit ‘ Crazy Rich Asians ‘ and played himself.

About the series

Pro Series is a suite of talks curated by library@orchard that gives insight into the craftsmanship of various design disciplines.

Host or Publisher GoLibrary | National Library Board, Singapore