Photo by Todd Anthony Tyler for Tank Magazine – Model Miao with Esee Model Management
Meet Canadian-born photographer Todd Anthony Tyler, who will be appearing as judge on the premier cycle of Asia’s Next Top Model. For over a decade, Tyler has operated a studio in Shanghai, China, becoming an authority on Asian beauty as well as one of the most sought-after contemporary photographers in Asia as well as worldwide.
Beauty is Diverse talks with the fashion jet setter about what it takes to be a top model, how the far East is inspiring the fashion industry and more!
BID : How did you get your start as a fashion photographer, and what inspires you most when doing fashion editorials for magazines such as Vogue China ?
TODD ANTHONY TYLER: Photography has been a lifelong interest of mine. At the age of five, my mother gave me a little 110-cartridge camera, the type that looks like a rectangular sandwich. You just pop in a cartridge, close the back and start clicking away. I remember taking my very first shots quite vividly on a family vacation to Niagara Falls. From the first moment, I looked through the viewfinder and discovered I could frame the world the way I saw it. I was hooked.
I shot a lot of photos in my youth. By the age of 13, I raised the money for my dream camera, a Minolta X 700, a single-lens reflex camera voted ‘Camera of the Year’ in Europe. I still have it in my collection of old cameras, and yes, it is a bit typical of a photographer to collect cameras, but I love the memories behind each one. Later, I acquired a more professional grade camera and spent many weekends photographing mostly animals, birds, insects, flowers and landscapes. At first, I was not that into shooting people. Occasionally I would enter a photo contest. As a kid, it was encouraging to get some recognition for images I was taking.
