The quest for Asian male beauty rests with both the creator and the model. The elusive chemistry that is shared between the artist and the muse, where the potential outcome is nothing less than creation itself.

I have said that I rarely know what I am doing until the moment happens. Many of the best images are left to chance and the unknown. It is how I paint and it how I photograph.

The imagery I have is contained within mystery and darkness, where male sensuality and sexuality is not proudly displayed, but in subtle way. The men with whom I connect with are not the ordinary, but the extraordinary. They are enigmatic, yet real and surreal. This is what I look for.

Every so often, a muse reveals itself and serves as the inspiration and movitation to keep going along the path of the road less taken.

You are not your body; you are beyond that which is physical. Your body is an illusion that you can form and mould, forever changing, never static.

Gallery

Welcome to the Asian Male Project website by me, Norm Yip. The images that you see here are a collection of photographs gathered over many years. In 1999 when I embarked on photographing the male nude. I have explored and photographed a variety of different styles and photography trends. I have honed my vision and aesthetics to an even tighter in composition and form. My interpretation of what I deem beautiful and intriguing to my senses are sure. I still delight in light and shadow, using the body and face as a tool for capturing a vision that is bare of non-essentials. I have very few props in my work and have very little interest in shooting popular or trendy images. Unfortunately, social media has banned and censored by work many times, rendering my work to disseminate my artwork to the wider public. So you might ask ‘Why Asians and not others?” I only choose to idolize the Asian male because I am Asian, and there was very little material in the media that gave Asian male nudes a spotlight. Herb Ritts’ superb monograph Kazu was an exception. I owe much to him and also the work of seminal work by Robert Mapplethorpe, whose work I also admire. He pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable within the context of North American gay life. I have my work here in Hong Kong and Asia, but from the perspective of a very personal view, one that is partly introverted and partly egotistical.