EARLYINSPIRATION
Bruce Wang Citizen Wang StudioArticle By Bruce Wang @ citizenwangstudio.com
I strongly remember poring over the Sunday Times Pictorial Magazines in my mid teens. This was 1966-1970. Every weekend there would be beautiful young models photographed by David Bailey, and in the centre of the magazine there would be haunting pictures from the Viet Nam war by Don McCullen. This was Sex and Violence every Sunday in B&W and Colour pictures. I would just look and look at the pictures and wonder how did these two humans get such pictures. The Bailey fashion shoots were just amazing, the models were happy and friendly looking but definitely beyond the scope of teenagers like myself and the vast majority of the male readership. The McCullen Viet Nam pictures were equally superlative, there’s something about young soldiers in uniform that is very photogenic—like a playground game of Cowboys and Indians but with real blood and bullets. I would just stare in awe at these pictures and on Sunday night, when the rest of the family had finished reading, I would tear out the pictures and sellotape them to the walls of my bedroom. I had just been given a camera by my father that Christmas…this was the start of my journey.