Chinese, b. 1975; lives and works in Shenzhen, China
After graduating from the Sichuan Art Institute in 1995, Yang Yong moved to Shenzhen, which then was undergoing a rapid transformation from a fishing village to a mega-city. Yang’s photographs feature an influx of people from various regions of China seeking economic rewards and greater freedom. His work portrays the romantic and sexual lives of the younger generation in Shenzhen, while being intentionally ambivalent about the directions of their lives. As an artist born in the ’70s, he documented a generation contending with the experience of social freedom and prosperity in the ’90s.
