Photographer Liam Wong began his career in the video games industry, having grown up in Edinburgh, Scotland, a short walk from Rockstar North, the company who developed the Grand Theft Auto games. Video games are the channel through which he learned about creativity, so it was no surprise he ended up becoming the youngest director at Ubisoft. Having pivoted to photography, the influence of his love of video games jumps out of his images, which blur the lines between the real and the computer-generated, as the way he plays with composition and lighting makes every shot look like a mid-mission cutscene. His Cyberpunk-inspired shots of the neon Tokyo cityscape were compiled into a book, titled “TO:KY:OO,” which was published in 2021 and included forewords and contributions from the late “Bladerunner” concept artist Syd Mead and iconic games designer Hideo Kojima. We spoke to Liam about how his two passions – video games and photography – overlap and intertwine in his work.
Stories with Liam Wong