Bryan Tan

http://bryantanphoto.com

Bryan Tan is a portrait photographer and photojournalist located in the San Francisco Bay Area. While I am based in San Francisco, I am available to travel throughout the Bay Area and beyond. My photographic influences include Henri Cartier-Bresson, Garry Winogrand, James Nactwey, Joe McNally and Michael Grecco. My goal is to be the best at what I do and to create images that are not only exciting and stimulating, but meaningful and impactful.

I hold a B.A. in Political Science and Mass Communications from the University of California at Berkeley.

My interest in photography has always been people. In fact, it is the only reason I have to photograph. Photographs are sometimes the only memory of the people who come in and out of our lives and of the fleeting moments shared; moments that were, unfortunately, far too short. To that end, I consider myself to be a storyteller – about people and places whose stories may otherwise have been forgotten.

As a portrait photographer, I believe in depicting people at their best (or, if necessary, at their worst). There are enough boring and cheesy pictures lying around. I aim to create images that are dramatic and full of life. I believe in restoring a sense of trust between the photographer and the subject so that the latter might allow the former a glimpse into his or her soul. As a journalist, I believe in giving voice to those without one. I am not interested in images of conflict and poverty for their commercial value, but in the hope that such images might, in some small way, mitigate the worst aspects of the human condition. Conflict photographers like James Nactwey and Michael Kamber have my undying respect.

Finally, I believe that, in a world where the camera phone and the security camera are equally ubiquitous, where there is an understandable distrust in the inherent truthfulness of still images, a singular individual with a camera still matters, and that the simplest images of all have the power to change the world.

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