At 80 years old, trailblazing photographer and performance artist William Yang is showing no signs of slowing down. His acclaimed performance works, presented at major festivals and arts centres across Australia and the world, draw from his vast photographic archive to tell powerful stories about immigration, culture, sexuality and creativity.
At this year’s OzAsia Festival William will be presenting his autobiographical piece, Milestone. In this ambitious new performance, William weaves together an epic slideshow of documentary photographs from his collection with personal stories, to explore themes of family, sexuality, and culture with his signature humour and candour.
William’s photographs are held in major Australian gallery and museum collections, including the National Gallery of Australia and the Museum of Contemporary Art. He is hailed as a leading influence on subsequent generations of Australian artists. Through his work, William specifically explores issues of cultural and sexual identity, integrating this practice with writing, performance, and film to create unique performance pieces.
William spoke to Glam Adelaide about Milestone and its creation. We also asked him if photography and the creative arts was always what he wanted to do as a career.
“I graduated as an architect from Queensland University in the 60s, but I didn’t last very long in that field. It wasn’t for me. I knew I wanted to be in the arts and I tried play writing, but found it too difficult to make a living. I was, however, really good at taking photographs and I had a camera. I started off as a freelance photographer in 1974 and since I was in theatre circles, I was surrounded by actors who needed to have their photograph taken for their headshots. So that’s how I started off doing actors’ portfolios. I also started to photograph events and parties which I really loved doing. It was even better when I was paid to do this. Over time I started to build up this wonderful collection of photographs.”
We were curious to know if William was the sort of photographer who always had his camera at hand.
“I do often take my camera, but not everywhere because not every moment kind of fits into my collection. I go to events and more recently, because I’m getting on in years, I’ve got certain themes which I keep. I’ve tried to keep my photography to three main areas: I started off doing celebrities in the artistic circles I was in, then there’s the gay community, and then there’s family – my biological family, My family is both in the USA and scattered around Australia. All three of these areas get incorporated into my shows.”
Written to celebrate his 80th birthday, Milestone is a joyous tribute to an Australian icon.
“I was first commissioned by Asia TOPA Melbourne in Melbourne, and they wanted to throw me up against the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. I knew that I’d have to have a big story to do that. So I thought, ‘Well, why not try to make it my autobiography?’ And that’s what it turned out to be.”
Milestone is set against an exquisite score composed and performed by Elena Kats-Chernin with Ensemble Lumen
“Ever since my first performance pieces in the theatre, I’ve always used music. I started off just using recorded music from my CD collection. Then I started to commission composers to do a tailor-made score for the performances.. I think that the first ones I did with commissioned scores were still recordings. I hit on the idea of having a live musician and generally they did the score. So that’s been the progression and I’ve stayed with that ever since. When I do my performance pieces – and I’ve done about 14 altogether – there’s always me, there’s always the slides, and the thing that I can change is the music. I tend to work with different composers with each performance I create, just so that it’s a little bit different. Some composers I’ve worked with a couple of times, and Elaine Kats-Chernin is one of them. Working with a symphony orchestra was another dimension altogether because usually I’ve just worked with one composer or musician. It makes touring easier when you only have one other person to accommodate or you find musicians in each state you perform.
“It always amazes me going into a new city with a new group of musicians. We’ve got two days of rehearsal with them. In the first rehearsal they sight read the music and have practice, then there’s a technical run, and then the following day, we do the dress rehearsal and the performance. It’s a very intense process.”
Milestone – William Yang with Elena Kats-Chernin and Ensemble Lumen
Adelaide Town Hall
Friday 31 October, 2025
7.30pm
https://ozasia.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/whats-on/milestone
Photo credit: George Gittoes
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