Ethan W Photography · Washington DC · New York

About

Portrait of Ethan Wong
by Ethan Wong

Long before any of these photographs, I was just a kid learning to look.

The valley kept going past anything I could hold, with Jill's dog Kampi steady on the rock beside me. I don't cry at views. I did at this one.

78°11'35.2"N, 15°35'20.0"E · Outside Longyearbyen, Svalbard
01

How I see

We remember our own lives more vividly than we give ourselves credit for. I shoot for that version of the memory: punchy, a little nostalgic, closer to how the day felt than how it merely looked. The influences are old photographs and modern art, minimalism with an avant-garde streak. The work is strong on purpose.

Svalbard
Longyearbyen · 78.2382° N, 15.4472° E
Away · 01 / 05

I came to support a friend and left a changed person. A week above 78 degrees north, on the edge of the inhabited world: the most remote place I have ever stood. Firsts everywhere, snowmobiling, dog sledding, a hand on the door of the Global Seed Vault. What I remember most is the people. Anoop guided us, and there is nothing like being shown the far edge of the world by someone who loves you. All of us quietly let go of our regular lives. No northern lights, which stung, but I would trade almost none of it.

The Global Seed Vault after dark. Nowhere I have stood feels more remote.
The Global Seed Vault after dark. Nowhere I have stood feels more remote.
The old coal works, left to the cold.
The old coal works, left to the cold.
Anoop, our guide and my friend's partner, up to one of Longyearbyen's old mine portals.
Anoop, our guide and my friend's partner, up to one of Longyearbyen's old mine portals.
Ancient blue ice, clear enough to read straight down into.
Ancient blue ice, clear enough to read straight down into.
The Seed Vault's light, caught as a reflection. I got to put a hand on its door.
The Seed Vault's light, caught as a reflection. I got to put a hand on its door.
A frozen waterfall, climbers on it, watched over a hot lunch.
A frozen waterfall, climbers on it, watched over a hot lunch.
Ahyeong of Soul Peak Studio, inside the glacier.
Ahyeong of Soul Peak Studio, inside the glacier.
The people this week brought together, out on the glacier.
The people this week brought together, out on the glacier.
Crossing the ice in a whiteout, trusting the person ahead.
Crossing the ice in a whiteout, trusting the person ahead.
Snow Fox Studio, home base for the retreat.
Snow Fox Studio, home base for the retreat.
The same windows, last light coming off the mountain.
The same windows, last light coming off the mountain.
The long walk back, shown the far edge of the world by someone who loves you.
The long walk back, shown the far edge of the world by someone who loves you.
Jill from Snow Fox, catching a frame. One of the sweetest people I have ever met.
Jill from Snow Fox, catching a frame. One of the sweetest people I have ever met.
Ice, doing what ice does.
Ice, doing what ice does.
02

With Maddie

Most weddings I work alone by design, and Maddie joins for the full-scale days: multiple locations, larger guest counts, timelines that need four hands. But she is far more than a second shooter. She runs most of the experience off camera, the planning and the back and forth that give couples and clients the best possible day. When the site says we, this is who we means.

Away · 02 / 05 California
Surf churning around rocky islets in a cove, fog washing the horizon pale
A crescent of sand curving beneath coastal bluffs, surf rolling in under low cloud
A lone car far ahead on a straight highway, hazy ridgelines stacked beyond
A man in a blue jacket leans on a deck railing, facing a wall of redwoods
The peak of a house just visible among trees on a fog swallowed ridge
A midcentury glass house glowing at night above the rocks, red blooms blurred in the foreground
A lone oak on a grassy hill under a star filled sky, a satellite streaking through
03

Written and Directed

Part of what you are hiring is this: I photograph and I write software, so one person shaped every piece of it, the photographs and the site that carries them. That is why no two sections here look quite alike; each one is built for whoever came looking for that particular thing. Some of what this industry treats as normal, the hidden prices, the slow replies, the friction that never had to be there, I would rather remove than explain, which is what the pricing page is for. Tools helped me lay the bricks, but they did not choose the house, and that quote tool worked well enough to become Tali, which other photographers now use. If it leaves you wanting more from work like this, whether or not you ever book me, it did what I hoped.

Away · 03 / 05 UK · Vienna · Budapest
An ornate stone palace towering over a wet Budapest street, cars passing below
A red and white narrowboat moored on a canal beneath spring blossoms, walkers on the towpath
Three children in pink and blue coats gather at a rail beside a woman
A small boy on a balance bike looks up at a passerby beneath bare plane trees, in black and white
A tram stop sign hanging over a busy Vienna shopping street in spring sun
Two friends share a park bench beneath golden autumn branches, one in bright orange
Two figures wave from a balustrade beneath a grand arched colonnade, clouds filling the arch
04

The call

The consultation call matters more than people expect. I read energy for a living, and you should get to read mine, because your photographer is beside you for more of the day than almost anyone you hire. We can talk about the wedding. We don't have to only talk about the wedding.

Away · 04 / 05 Puerto Rico
A roadside stand shaded by three bright beach umbrellas, one printed Puerto Rico
A man lifts a toddler onto a seawall to watch the waves roll in
A yellow house catching late sun against a deep blue sky, shadowed wall below
A man in a blue Scoops Ahoy shirt smiles at dusk, lampposts glowing down the promenade
A Welcome Puerto Rico poster above a cluttered vintage cabinet against a coral pink wall
A bartender flashes peace signs beneath a stained glass lamp in a brick walled bar
A rooftop pool at night, its walls painted in bands of mint, purple, and orange
A green mountainside framed through a dark arched window, clouds resting on the ridge
A thin stream threading over dark boulders through dense rainforest
A hiker with a black backpack climbing stone steps into thick jungle
Two swimmers wading beneath a tall waterfall spilling down a mossy rock face
A grocer carries a white bag past bananas and a pineapple, a handwritten Hay Bacalao sign overhead
A weathered hand holding a folded five dollar bill at a bakery case
Nutcrackers and a tinsel tree crowd the top of a deli case beside a wall fan
Shoppers picking through papayas and mangoes under the warm lights of a market hall
Inside a produce market, bananas hanging from a beam and a Puerto Rican flag over the aisle
A scarlet antique cash register buried in the beautiful clutter of a shop counter
Two vendors waiting behind bins of fruit beneath a hand lettered Mavi Friiio sign
A single buoy adrift in sparkling open water beneath scattered clouds
Stars crowding the night sky above boulders faintly lit in red
Two small boats at anchor after dark, one masthead light blazing beneath the stars
Two white plastic chairs at a dark table on a quiet tiled porch
A sailboat resting in a glassy bay at dusk, seen past a shaded cafe terrace
A long wooden dock running out to a moored boat, hills hazy across the water
Two heads bobbing in a calm sea, the sun burning a silver path across the water
A model in a beaded owl costume standing among pale river boulders below green hills
05

The first camera

Now the longer story. The first camera was cheap, secondhand, and mine at ten years old. The photos were terrible. I kept taking them anyway, constantly, which turned out to be the whole lesson.

Everyone starts somewhere. Mine was food, LEGO, and anything that would hold still.

06

The detour

Art was never the plan in my house, so I became a software engineer. I was good at it, and I learned things I still use every day. But somewhere between the org charts and the quarterly math, I knew I wanted something of my own, built around the thing I actually loved. In 2017 I started shooting weddings on the side, quietly, while doing life.

They give you a pillow to hold against your chest when you cough. Mine came covered in signatures. That's my husband Joel beside me.

May 2024
07

The turn

In May of 2024 I went in for heart surgery, and the layoff came while I was still in it. A bad month, a simple decision. I stopped calling photography the side thing. Plenty of people believed I could do it, and I wasn't always one of them, but I went anyway. Since then this work has introduced me to some of the greatest people in my life. I plan to keep meeting them.

An old friend's table
Meal Mate DC · Washington, DC
The first job back

The first job I took after the surgery: a dinner Meal Mate DC, Jamie Clare's company, put on for a family who had won it. Some work you take because of who's asking.

A printed menu propped on a white plate, a handwritten DAD card tucked into it
A wooden bar cabinet open to stacked glassware, copper mugs shining on top
An amber cocktail with a skewered garnish beside a portable burner, crayons waiting in a blue bowl
A platter of oysters on ice at the center of the table, crayons scattered within reach
A chef sets down a plate of fritters beside a princess crown coloring page
A shallow bowl of poached fish and shrimp, a painted porcelain spoon resting alongside
Wine glasses meeting over a bubbling hot pot as the table toasts, one guest grinning wide
Tattooed hands sorting clams over a bowl in a crowded home kitchen
A counter crowded with oils, baking powder, and a glass bowl of soaking clams
A glass pitcher of coral punch thick with mint leaves, pink roses leaning overhead
A divided hot pot simmering mid table while a boy watches his bowl being filled
Punch pouring from a pitcher into a coupe beside a vase of garden roses
Away · 05 / 05 Colorado
Snow falling over a dark river bend hemmed in by foggy pines
A Steller's jay puffed up among snow loaded pine branches
Elk crossing a snowy roadside past a pedestrian sign, seen over a car mirror
A lone tree on a bare ridge under an enormous blank gray sky
A ranch house tucked beneath snow dusted foothills, a rail fence running past
A truck far ahead on a wet interstate, a snowy mountainside dissolving into fog
A straight highway running between snowy evergreen slopes toward sunlit peaks
Red rock fins in shadow before green hills striped with fresh snow
Where to next
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