ABOUT ME

As I can’t seem to edit the “about” page, i decided to just write a new post on it.  Sorry for the horn-tooting.   🙂

He is a published photographer specializing in architectural, travel and glamour photography; earning his first magazine cover in 1995.   His photographic book credits include the Fookien Times Philippine Yearbook 2004, the U.N. funded book on the current state of the Philippine environment published by the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communications, titled Our Environment Today; The Art of Photography, published by the Federation of Philippine Photographers Foundation in 2007, and the Epix ‘05 Photo Imaging Exposition.  His fine art photographs have also graced several corporate desk calendars.  He has also been featured on Mabuhay Magazine, the in-flight magazine of Philippine Air Lines; and on Gadgets magazine.

He is a multi-award winning photographer of The Camera Club of the Philippines, having received the Photograph of the Year award four times in a ten-year period, in three separate celluloid disciplines.  One of his early works, a photograph of a stream of light breaking through storm clouds and casting its golden light on a solitary nipa hut in a field of green, was displayed at the National Museum during their group exhibit to commemorate the CCP’s 75th anniversary.  This photograph, which was christened by Director Maning Borlaza as “Act of God”, was also awarded as a finalist in the 2005 Epson photographic competition.

Paul received his primary and secondary education from Xavier School Greenhills, the school of choice of the Filipino-Chinese community.

Paul was educated at the University of the Philippines where he holds a bachelor’s degree for Broadcast Communication.

Although principally self-taught in photography, he has had massive technical and personal interaction with the country’s top professional photographers.  Paul was trained in the golden age of film as a Large-Format specialist, working with both field and monorail technical view cameras.  His diagonal focus portraits and fine art images are produced mainly with Speed Graphic and Sinar 4”x5” equipment.

He attributes his photographic awakening to two international icons, British Michael Freeman and Filipino CLIO award winner Emil Davocol.  Freeman, through his books, for the technical fundamentals, and Davocol, for the evocative style he showcases today.  He credits Martin Westlake, another British photographer based in Asia, for his shift toward large format view cameras, and for shifting his aesthetics towards diagonal focus images.  He regrets the demise of celluloid, but has morphed quite easily into the digital age of imaging.

Professionally, Paul describes himself as “an advertising photographer with a very strong visual anchor in Fine Art photography”.  His commercial and advertising work often showcases an interaction of technical skill and candid imagery.   He also holds the distinction of selling out a collection of clothes within seven days from first display of his fashion billboards.

As a believer that the best photographic products are not necessarily the most popular and the most expensive, Paul is the product endorser of Profoto brand professional studio lights in the Philippines, since 2006.   He currently endorses the wireless high-power professional strobe system for outdoor fashion shoots.

In a recent worldwide photography tournament sponsored by Garuda Indonesia, Paul is rated at the top 5% of the world, finishing in the top 200 from a pool of over 90,000 photographers; perhaps the highest-placed finish among Filipino photographers as none reached the finals.  He is rated at #2 in the Philippines for architectural photography by Pixoto, a worldwide stock photo agency.

Paul is also a writer, having served as the Editor-In-Chief of the Viewfinder, the award-winning publication of The Camera Club of the Philippines He writes under his syndicated column, The Paul Yan Chronicles.  He has also produced a photo folio for the Federation of Philippine Photographers Foundation, Inc., titled The Art of Photography, as a commemorative companion for Photoworld 2007.  Paul was also the Editor In Chief of the Xavier Alumni Times, from 2007-2009.  He has an internet presence at http://www.photographerinmanila.wordpress.com.

In 2006, Paul completed a personal donation of an entire professional wet-process darkroom system to the Federation of Philippine Photographers Foundation in memory of Mr. Oswaldo Cruz.  The facilities of this darkroom shall be made available to amateurs and hobbyists for the purpose of elevating the technical standards of Filipino photographers.

As part of his advocacy towards improving the technical proficiency of Philippine Photographers, Paul conducts special public workshops, lectures, and hands-on shoots.  In the past year, he has conducted around 10 public workshops including one for the Philippine College of Physicians and two for Philippine Foto Week. This adds to the public workshops he has previously done for the SM Malls group on “Professional Portrait Photography and Advanced Lighting Techniques”, a lecture on the history of photography for UNESCO, and another lecture for Photoworld Asia 2011 on “Alternative Visualizations” where he was one of only four Filipino lecturers.

He trains his own pool of photographers, lighting specialists, and assistants, and so, literally speaking, has the deepest bench in the country.

He has also very recently come back from a six-week advocacy project in Baler, Aurora, photographing the local surfers as well as the beautiful vistas in the area.

In 2011, Paul was nominated and shortlisted as The Outstanding Filipino, for Art Excellence.  The TOFIL awards is a project of the Philippine Jaycees Junior Chamber International (JCI) Senate.

Paul is currently Managing Director of The Paul Yan Experience, Creative Director of 4:29 Digital Art Studio, and previously Managing Partner and Creative Director of YTV Digital Broadcast Group.