“The Surprising Cost of Our Quest to Defy Aging”

July 17th, 2025

The article explores the hidden environmental and social costs of the booming anti-aging industry, questioning whether the pursuit of longevity is sustainable or equitable.

Han Yang’s photographic work is featured in the latest issue of ATMOS Magazine, accompanying the article “The Surprising Cost of Our Quest to Defy Aging” by Darshita Goyal.

This thought-provoking piece investigates the booming anti-aging and longevity industry—from collagen supplements to IV drips—and reveals its often overlooked environmental cost. While marketed as pathways to wellness, many of these treatments carry significant ecological and ethical implications, raising questions about sustainability, access, and equity.

ATMOS is a leading publication at the intersection of ecology, culture, and art. Known for its visually rich and intellectually rigorous storytelling, it has long been a source of inspiration and admiration in Han’s creative practice.

Read the full article here: https://atmos.earth/surprising-cost-anti-aging/

The Color Photography Contest by reFocus Awards

July 9, 2025

This year’s competition welcomed entries from 83 countries, highlighting outstanding work from across the global photographic community. The jury included industry professionals from National Geographic Society, Sonder Publications, The Gulf Report, and others.

Han Yang has received the Silver Prize in the Fine Art category of the 2025 reFocus Awards: Color Photography Contest for the series Metamorphosis.

Metamorphosis is a conceptual portrait series that explores queer identity and visual transformation through the lens of speculative aesthetics. This project explores the transformative journey of the queer body through butterfly symbolism. The butterfly, representing rebirth, fluidity and metamorphosis, reflects the evolving nature of queer identity. This visual narrative captures the ongoing, personal metamorphosis of queer identity.

More about the award: https://refocus-awards.com/entry/metamorphosis-3

AAP Magazine 48: Portrait Photography Competition Winners Announced

June 30, 2025

AAP Magazine is proud to announce the winners of its 48th issue, dedicated to Portrait Photography. Selected from a wide array of international submissions, the 25 winning photographers have captured the essence of portraiture—revealing powerful stories, raw emotions, and the universal depth of the human experience. Portrait photography remains one of the most compelling genres, offering a window into the soul of its subjects.

Han Yang’s ongoing photographic series In Between Worlds has been selected as one of the winning projects in AAP Magazine #48: Portrait.

The series explores how individuals within the LGBTQ+ community navigate self-expression and identity between personal experience and societal expectation. The featured image, Nonbinary, Holli Xue, portrays a nonbinary individual whose calm, introspective presence contrasts with a vibrant inner world. Through intimate portraiture and subtle visual storytelling, the project highlights the fluid, evolving nature of gender identity and the quiet resilience found in self-acceptance.

Below is a preview of the published spread in AAP Magazine.

Issue #48: Portrait, July 2025.

Winners: https://www.all-about-photo.com/photo-articles/photo-article/1886/aap-magazine-48-portrait-photography-competition-winners-announced

Print Editorial Feature in Aesthetica Magazine - April / May 2025

March 29th, 2025

Aesthetica Magazine is a destination for art and culture. In-depth features foreground today’s most innovative practitioners across art, architecture, photography and design. The magazine has national and international distribution and contributes to a total reach of 500,000+, with a significant online presence across the website and social media. Psychology, femininity, gender, technology and the body. These are key themes at the heart of Han Yang’s research-led photographic practice. The London-based visual artist and creative director combines elements from abstraction, Chinese philosophy, fashion, posthumanism and surrealism to build pictures that are rich in emotional depth. Her close-up portraits use visual metaphors – like broken eggs, or butterfly wings – alongside writings from Buddhist text The Heart Sutra, to explore what it means to be vulnerable, yet resilient, amidst periods of personal and global turmoil. Elsewhere, subjects stand next to withered tree trunks or cherry blossoms in shallow pools; the concept here is to examine the intrinsic connections between people, plants and their environments. All of this is executed through a distinct visual style. Han Yang consistently pushes the boundaries of genre, drawing the viewer in via symbolism, mystery and precise attention to detail. 

Culture Identified 文化定义: Global SinoPhoto Awards 2020-2024

13 January - 31 January 2025

The Global SinoPhoto Awards aims to communicate Chinese culture and values through remarkable imagery taken by photographers from around the globe and to create a dialogue between “East” and “West”. Culture Identified: Global SinoPhoto Awards Revisited 2020 – 2024, features 62 selected images from 32 photographers worldwide who have entered their photographs into the Awards since it launched in 2020.

Christie's is hosting the Global SinoPhoto Awards Exhibition from 13 January - 31 January 2025. The Global SinoPhoto Awards aims to communicate Chinese culture and values through remarkable imagery taken by photographers from around the globe and to create a dialogue between “East” and “West”. Culture Identified: Global SinoPhoto Awards Revisited 2020 – 2024, features 62 selected images from 32 photographers worldwide who have entered their photographs into the Awards since it launched in 2020.

The annual exhibition, sponsored by Raymond Legal, marked the fifth year of GSPA since its foundation in 2020, highlighting 62 selected images from 32 photographers worldwide who have entered their photographs into the Awards from 2020 – 2024, to share their different global perspectives and understanding of Chinese culture.  The aim of the Awards is to connect people through an appreciation of Chinese culture and promote photographers internationally. Over the first four years, the Global SinoPhoto Awards has collected thousands of images from hundreds of photographers from more than 40 countries.  The exhibition featured past entries that tell a story, whether it’s a personal experience, an ancestral connection, or a fascination with Chinese culture.

The Global SinoPhoto Awards, founded by Yintong Betser and Lynne Bryant, was inspired by the historical exhibition the Family of Man curated by Edward Steichen at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1955.  It celebrated the universal human experience through powerful photographs from around the world, promoting global unity, empathy, and the shared values that connect all people. As well as the principal sponsor Raymond Legal; Blick Rothenberg, and the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office also returned this year, continuing their support of the Global SinoPhoto Awards.  The gallery space was generously provided by Christie’s London.

Press features 2025:

Arts & Collections，Bastille Post，MutualArt，Ground News

London Business Matters: Jan | Mar，MutualArt，MiS (Made in Shoreditch)

London News，Olay Gazete，China Minutes:Image | PDF

Attended the 7th Annual Women’s Emerging Artist Awards

September 19th, 2024

Empowering Female Voices in Contemporary Art. The Women in Art Prize discovers and elevates emerging female Artists across the UK and overseas. Each year, they select 22 visionaries poised to reshape the art world, with an additional spotlight on one international talent.

At the 7th Annual Women’s Emerging Artist Awards, I was deeply honored that my photography piece “Vulnerability” has won the Eve Arnold Photography First Prize and will be featured in Artter Magazine. This moment fills me with immense gratitude and emotion.

I want to sincerely thank WOMEN IN ART   for providing this incredible platform for all female artists to showcase their work and stories. You have given voice to women in art and lit the way for us to dream bigger. Special thanks to the Eve Arnold Estate @evearnoldphotographer for supporting and recognizing my work. This is not just an honor for me but for all women photographers. Huge congratulations to all the brilliant artists, especially @speciesism.wtf and @ella_kowalska. It was a privilege to share this stage with you.

My personal journey has been truly unique. I come from a very small village in China, and I have been chasing and realizing my dream here in London. No one truly understands the challenges I’ve faced, and my identity itself reflects the essence of “Vulnerability.” To be the only Asian woman to receive this honor at the awards ceremony is a milestone in my artistic life. Throughout the past three years of pursuing my PhD, I have endured unimaginable challenges—both physically and mentally. I fell into deep depression and, for a time, couldn’t even leave my room. Photography became my only light in the darkness, guiding me through the hardest times. For those like me, who embody “vulnerability,” we must never give up on that one ray of hope. It is what will lead us to brighter days. Thank you to this organization and platform for making invisible female artists like me visible! This recognition means the world to me.

Exhibited in the "NUDE"

August 3rd, 2024

Throughout history artists have been inspired by the human form. Nudity can simply be implied or tell a story through the whole human form. We venture to make this our most revealing exhibition to date. Submit today for your chance to be included in this exhibition.

EXHIBITION DATES:

AUGUST 3RD – AUGUST 31ST

Throughout history artists have been inspired by the human form. Nudity can simply be implied or tell a story through the whole human form. We venture to make this our most revealing exhibition to date. Submit today for your chance to be included in this exhibition.

The selected work: https://decodegallery.com/exhibitions/nude-2024/

The exhibition Revelation of Life: The Artistic Presentation of Worker Poetry

September 13 to September 19, 2024

The Disappearing Train Station poetically captures the vanishing of traditional transportation, amidst the tide of urbanization. The overlooked workers and the gradually disappearing villages stand as shadows in time. Through contrasting the bustling modern city with the fading past, the work evokes a gentle concern for forgotten ways of life and the people who lived them.

Private View Opening Time: September 12, 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Goldsmiths St. James's Hatcham Church Hall; SE14 6AD
Exhibition Dates: September 13 to September 19

Press Feature: https://www.verse.com.tw/article/blue-collar-poetry-2024