Yi Han & Yaorong Lu
TIFA 2025 Interview with Yi Han & Yaorong Lu
Discovery of the Year, 1st Place winner in Advertising, Professional, “The Art of the Ideal Deal”
Could you start by introducing yourselves and sharing how your collaboration began? What do each of you bring to the creative partnership behind The Art of The Ideal Deal?
Yi Han and I are an Art Duo. He is an excellent portrait photographer, good at capturing the unique characteristics and essence of his subjects. I’ve been doing miniature and creative photography for 15 years. It started as just a hobby, but over time it became an essential part of my life. Creation makes me happy. We started collaboration about 5 years ago when we were trying to take some creative and artistic portraits for our first son during the pandemic. It became a success and we started to combine our unique skills and ideas to work together in creating our unique style of fine-art portraits. Last year, we started our own photography studio Wonderlens. We brainstorm creative concepts together: I design and build the sets, he is in charge of lighting design and portrait photography, then I handle the post-production.
What inspired you to transform real estate listings into reinterpretations of iconic paintings?
We have two friends who are real estate agents — one is an Asian woman, the other is a white man. They’ve been partners for over ten years, and their chemistry is a huge part of who they are professionally. They hope we can shoot a set of professional portraits for them that will leave a deep impression. Our approach to portrait photography is always about revealing a person’s profession, identity, and personality through the image. We’re not just taking pictures of people — we’re telling their stories. We went to many open houses with them, from century-old houses to brand-new builds, and each space had its own character. We started to think: what if we placed these two agents into those classic, iconic, art-historical settings, as if those were the properties they represent? It felt playful, unexpected, and memorable. That idea became The Art of the Ideal Deal — a photographic series that bridges art history and contemporary real estate, connecting past and present, reflecting who they are and how they work together through visual storytelling rather than traditional advertising.
On the technical side, what equipment and techniques did you use to achieve the painterly look and seamless integration of subjects into these classical scenes?
We carefully studied these classical paintings and analyzed their composition, perspective, and use of light. During the shoot, we did our best to replicate the light sources in the paintings, and in post-production we adjusted the colors and overall texture of the images so that the subjects could be seamlessly integrated into these classical scenes.
Winning the Discovery of the Year title at the Tokyo International Foto Awards is a major recognition. What does this achievement mean to you personally and to your creative practice?
Receiving the Discovery of the Year title from the Tokyo International Foto Awards is truly meaningful for us. It feels incredibly encouraging to know that our work is being seen and understood, and it gives us a lot of confidence to keep creating and pushing our photography forward.
Many photographers hesitate to submit unconventional work to major competitions. What advice would you offer to those considering entering TIFA or other international awards?
I think art should always come from a place of freedom. Don’t put too many limits on yourself before you even start. When people look at a photograph or a piece of art, what really matters is whether it creates an emotional connection, whether it pulls their heart strings. The message and emotion behind the work is far more important than its form. Trust your work and have the courage to show it. Don’t let hesitation or overthinking stop you from submitting something you truly believe in. More often than you realize, your work resonates and finds its place.