JT Portfolio
Written byWill Pei YuanJohnny Tang is a Brooklyn fine art photographer whose surreal, cinematic self-portraits have been shown in New York since 2016. His site carries the work series by series, alongside the exhibition history, the bio, and the two things a working artist needs from a website: a way for collectors to back the next series, and a way for anyone to get in touch.
- Role —
- Design and build, end to end.
- Stack —
- Next.js, Vercel
The problem
The work is the argument, and it has to arrive at full weight: series like World of One and Dreams of Noir are meant to be met as sequences, not as a grid of thumbnails. Around the work, the site has to do the business of an independent artist: show where it has been exhibited, say who he is, ask collectors for support, and collect enquiries and newsletter sign-ups.
What I built
The site opens on one line about the work: a Taiwanese American photographer exploring identity, detachment and internal conflict through surreal, cinematic self-portraiture. From there, Works leads into each series on its own page, so a visitor moves through World of One or Dreams of Noir as a body of work.
Exhibitions lists the shows in date order, from the BBoy Monsters solo show at Reedspace in 2016 through Pearl River Mart in 2019 to Counter Weight and As Real As Real in 2022. About carries his statement and bio: a break dancer before he was a photographer, a BFA in photography from SCAD, and an east-meets-west brand of surrealism.
Donate is written in his own voice and sets out reward tiers for backers, from a signed postcard to exhibition-sized World of One prints in limited runs. Contact pairs an enquiry form with a newsletter sign-up for new exhibitions and releases, so a visitor who isn’t ready to write still has a way to stay close to the work.