Keruo Yang

I grew up in Beijing and trained as a filmmaker. After an MFA in Film at the University of Miami I came back and spent ten years alternating between directing and producing — short fiction, commercials, documentary projects; scouting, budgets and the floor itself.

Then I moved the weight of the work to documentary, for a straightforward reason: a rehearsed performance never beats ten honest seconds. Today I photograph children's conditioning classes, football training and matches. A 35mm prime, available light, rarely any fill, almost no direction.

Running alongside is a long-term study: children's bodies, emotions and the ideas placed around them — how a society tells a child, one small correction at a time, what a body should look like, how much feeling is acceptable, when to hold it in. No end date, no conclusions attached.

I am also the father of a football boy. He is two and a half, and he is the small back in First Touch.

Titles, years, production companies and awards to be confirmed. If you need references for a specific project, write and I will send them.

Begun in 2019, along three threads: Body — disciplined posture in training grounds and classrooms; Emotion — the expressions adults smooth over quickly; Being seen — the instant a child notices the watching and adjusts.

Photographed in schools, clubs and homes across Beijing, Hebei and Yunnan. All black and white, with as little environmental information as possible. Intended for a monograph and an exhibition. Academic partners, documentary teams and publishers are welcome to write.