William Yang

William Yang (born 1943), formerly known as Willy Young, is an Australian social history photographer, playwright, artist, and filmmaker. Yang's photography and performances span over 50 years and document the uncharted growth and influence of Sydney's gay subculture from the 1970s through to the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s and beyond. Through the media of photography and performance Yang also explores his own ethnicity as a Chinese Australian and the intersection of his ethnic background and sexuality.

Early life and education William Yang was born in 1943 in Mareeba, North Queensland. He is a second-generation Chinese Australian.

Yang studied architecture at University of Queensland, where his interest in photography took shape. Photos of architectural detail, theatrical performance and people became the content that later defined his work, particularly performance and people. He dropped out shortly after graduating in 1968. He also made some films in the early 1970s. His first exhibition at ACP was in 1977, Sydneyphiles, consisting of celebrity social photos and (more controversial at the time) images of the gay community.

Yang became increasingly engrossed with documenting the gay subculture surrounding Oxford Street in Sydney and switched from earning a living with commercial magazines to earning commissions from the gay press . Yang has said of this time: I see myself as a photographic witness to our time. I feel compelled to perform these slide shows as social rituals to unburden myself of the things I have seen.

Inspired by the autobiographical monologues of Spalding Gray, Yang embarked on an international tour of his work Sadness, a 'monologue with slide projections', which was also developed as a film, winning several awards including the 1999 AWGIE Award for best screenplay, and best documentary selected by the Australian Film Critics Circle Award.

Later career In the last decade, Yang has worked closely with Contemporary Asian Australian Performance (CAAP) and in collaboration with Annette Shun Wa has been instrumental in supporting Asian Australian creatives including hip hop musicians Joal Ma and James Mangohig (In between two).

Legacy Yang's archive consists of over half a million images covering almost 50 years of documenting people, places and social change. Ennis also contrasts his publicly exhibited work to more recent depictions of death and dying using digital technology held privately by surviving loved ones.

In 2023, Yang was recognised as a Rainbow Champion as part of Sydney World Pride 2023 in recognition of his photographic career in documenting and celebrating LGBTQ+ life and culture in Australia.

Recognition and awards Many portraits of and by Yang are held by the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, including self-portraits.

Awards and honours include: 1989 Honorary Doctorate of Letters, University of Queensland 1999 AWGIE Award (Documentary (Public Broadcast)) for Sadness: A monologue with slides (1999) 2007 Portrait of Geoffrey Rush (created 2006), finalist in the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2007 2023 Rainbow Champion, Sydney World Pride

Oral history The National Library of Australia hold a number of oral history interviews with William Yang, spanning from 1993 to 2019.