Interview with Ian Flanders
BIFA 2025 Winner, 1st Place, Professional Architecture, “Mirror Reflections of Architecture Charm”
Q: First of all, congratulations to Chinese photographer Zhong An Yu for winning the Professional Architecture Category Champion at the Budapest International Foto Awards. What does this award mean to you?
Yes, when I learned that I had won the Professional Architecture Category Champion at the Budapest International Foto Awards, I was extremely surprised and thrilled. As you know, I am an active participant in international photography salons. In 1993, I was honored with the top title on the PSA World Top Ten Photographers list. Starting from 2025, I have participated in all the international photography competitions throughout the year organized by PSA and FIAP. Although I have won a total of 360 gold medals for the year, including 80 PSA gold medals and 60 FIAP gold medals, which seems to be a world record, unfortunately, people always perceive me as a traditional pictorial photography salon photographer and cannot shake off this fixed aesthetic perception. However, the Budapest International Foto Awards has given me a brand-new concept and an opportunity to challenge myself, and I have indeed succeeded. The Budapest award signifies that I have a brand-new starting point in photography.
Q: You are well known in China for your portrait photography. How did you also find your way into architectural photography and achieve recognition internationally in that field?
Portrait photography has been my lifelong career and the main subject and advantage for me in participating in international competitions. Although I am also an architectural designer and find it easy to shoot architectural photography works, I cannot guarantee that the standard of my works can quickly reach a satisfactory level. Creative architectural photography works have indeed been the subject that has won me the most international awards in recent years, which has greatly encouraged me, so I dared to participate in the grand platform of the Budapest Foto Awards.
Q: Your internationally acclaimed architectural photographs feel remarkably inventive, pushing far beyond the conventions of traditional architectural imagery. They are both transcendent and unexpected. How do you approach achieving this distinct visual language?
Yes, most of my architectural photography works are created through the organic synthesis of architectural subjects, the sky, and people. Buildings, models, ornaments, and sculptures serve as the main subjects of my compositions, making my architectural photography works particularly unexpected to viewers. This is also the core highlight and unique aspect of my participation in international photography competitions.
Q:How did your practice evolve from traditional pictorial photography to the contemporary work you create today? Do you see the Budapest International Foto Awards as a new point of departure in your artistic journey?
The label of a traditional pictorial photographer has become tiresome to me. I am not content with the status quo. This year, I have created many conceptual and abstract photography works, always striving for breakthroughs in aesthetics and concepts, and eager to continuously experiment with shooting contemporary photography subjects. The Budapest Foto Awards have given me the confidence and opportunity to challenge myself, and they have also fulfilled my wishes.
Born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, Zhong An Yu was crowned the top winner on the PSA World Top Ten Photographers list in 1993 and was honored as an Outstanding Professional Photographer in the World by the PPA . Subsequently, he was consecutively listed among the PSA World Top Ten Photographers six times and was also awarded the title of one of the first Top Ten Portrait Photographers in China in the same year. In 1999, he received the Golden Statue Award, the highest honor in Chinese photography. He is a senior fellow of the Photographic Society of New York, USA. From August 2024 to August 2025, he has won a total of 360 gold medals in international photography competitions certified by FIAP and PSA, including 80 PSA gold medals and 60 FIAP gold medals, with over a thousand various awards and more than 5,000 selected works throughout the year. He has published over ten personal collections of portrait photography works, including the portrait photography collection “Master Photographers’ Lecture Hall.” In 2022, he published China’s first portrait photography textbook, “Professional Portrait Photography,” in two volumes. He is renowned in China as a master of Chinese portrait photography and Chinese architectural photography.