2019 Sony World Photography Awards - Winner, Landscape, Professional Competition
Dr. Yan Wang Preston is a British-Chinese artist interested in the contested definitions of nature in contemporary societies. Her major projects include ‘Mother River’ and ‘Forest’. For 'Mother River' (2010-2014), she photographed the entire 6,211-km Yangtze River at precise 100-km intervals. For 'Forest' (2010-2017), she investigated the politics of reforestation and ecology recovery in new Chinese cities.
Preston’s work has won major international awards such as the Hundred Heroines, the Royal Photographic Society, the 1st Prize, Syngenta Photography Award, and the Shiseido Photographer Prize at the Three Shadows Photography Annual Award in Beijing, China. Solo exhibitions of Preston’s work has been shown at venues such as the 56th Venice Biennale, Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum, Wuhan Art Museum, Gallery of Photography Ireland and Impressions Gallery in Bradford, UK. Important group shows include Dubai Photo, Syngenta Photography Award exhibition at the Somerset House, London and 209 Women at the Westminster Palace, London. Preston’s monographs ‘Forest’ and ‘Mother River’ are both published by Hatje Cantz in 2018. She received a PhD in Photography from the University of Plymouth in 2018.
Aside of her artistic career, Preston lectures photography at the University of Huddersfield, UK. Her UK print sales is represented by Messums London.