52 http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk
LI A M WONG
T
ake one look at Liam Wong’s night-time images
of the city of Tokyo and you’re transported
to a Blade Runner-like world, a nocturnal sci-fi
playground that dazzles the eye and imprints
itself on your brain. The obvious cinematic reference is
no surprise as Wong cites key influences such as director
Wong Kar-Wai and cinematographer Roger Deakins.
He reveals, ‘My favourite photographer is Fan Ho – his
1950s and 1960s [work in] Hong Kong is just incredible
stuff. A main inspiration is Syd Mead, the Blade Runner
and Tron visual artist. The colours, the composition, the
content... everything about it... he had a graphic design
background and you can see it inside his work. Those
people were huge inspirations for me.’
Neon
nights
Liam Wong has built up a big
following for his dramatic,
cinematic images of Tokyo at
night. Steve Fairclough
spoke to him about his career
Wong was born in Edinburgh,
Scotland, but his journey into
photography has only truly
developed since 2015, when he
bought a Canon EOS 5D Mark II.
Prior to that he was an art director at
the major game development
company Ubisoft, in Canada, which
developed blockbuster games like
Assassin’s Creed, but an increasing
need to travel for both business and
pleasure saw his visual horizons
expanding further.
He explains, ‘Coming from an
artistic background I save a lot of
images. I look at stuff – anything I
can consume and take something
from. A lot of films, so I think about
the framing, what’s in the frame and
what’s not; what things are left out
to kind of give you that feeling. You
see it in films a lot, like set design,
where everything is considered but