Lina Jang is an Indonesian-born, New York-bred photographic artist who loves Love. Over the last ten years, she has documented more than 600 weddings at locations as diverse as her clients’ cultures and traditions: The Mandarin Hotel on Columbus Circle, the beach at Hollywood’s Westin Resort, a family stone church on Long Island, a chuppah at downtown Battery Gardens, and even the darkened stage of a Broadway theater. She studied Fine Art Photography at the School of Visual Arts, and is as moved by the clean, crisp, sophisticated lines of Modernist design as she is by the warm tropical landscapes of Paul Gaugin. A Romantic in the ultimate sense, she offers an open heart and a keen eye: “Seeing you in the frame of my camera lens, it’s almost like reading a diary -- discovering and capturing your insights about the person you admire most. Connecting with my clients is an intimate experience, and it’s also one of my greatest joys.”

For Lina Jang photography borders and encompasses so many different genres of photography: fashion photography, event photography, and portraiture all rolled into one... which is why she loves it! She has studied them all, so she enjoys addressing those challenges. The bride’s dress laid out on the hotel room bed with her shoes glittering on the windowsill nearby -- that’s part fashion shot, part still life. For shooting a crowd scene from above, she might use a fish-eye lens, for instance, to converge them into a more intimate composition. And, of course, there’s also landscape photography in there, too! It’s all about creating an atmosphere.

Her first memory when she came to NYC at 11, is seeing all the lights from the buildings through the airplane window and thinking, ‘I am in a golden city.’ Adjusting from a tropical island to a city with different seasons every couple of months was hard, and she still misses it to this day. Her parents taught her to earn my own way, the value of independence, and to think for herself. She attended the School of Visual Arts on a Silas H. Rhoades scholarship. In high school, her mentors were Toby Heifetz and Ann Hunt Currier -- two amazing women who introduced her to art and photography and were a huge artistic influence on her. One was a painter who had an amazing emotional connection to the figure; the other was a photographer of such sensitivity, she could show you a whole Human Story in a single shot. 

When she was young, she liked to read National Geographic. Later, at SVA, she fell in love with b&w Modernism, the Fauves... you name it. She’s also fascinated by boudoir photography, and is pursuing that interest as well, on the side. But all brides are sexy in their own way! And they are classically beautiful, as seen in art history, as well.

She discovered her passion for wedding photography when she was 16 years old. While developing photos (old school, before digital!) in the darkroom at her LaGuardia High School, she had that “Ah-Ha” moment. The developing process felt magical and exciting... and always unpredictable. As for weddings, they are her life! She feels the frisson of energy between the bride and groom, not just while they’re waiting at the altar, but in the way they look at each other across a toast in a crowded room. She finds it so exciting that she celebrates being there. She says she needs to be there, since she truly believes in love at first sight.
She also believes in destiny, and with going with the flow of things, because life is constantly changing, and one can’t force it. She believes in the infinite facets of romance and spiritual connection, and she loves how they are manifested in unique ways, which is also what led her to wedding photography. She is a believer of tradition, adventure and the courage it takes to be ready for challenges. Ultimately, weddings are all those things -- a ritual on the verge of a new adventure in life.

When the eyes see what they have never seen before, the heart feels what it has never felt before.
–Balthasar Gracián