About

Hi, I'm Yan Kurniawan — a landscape photographer based in Sydney, Australia.

My earliest memory of being moved by a place is standing on a headland north of Sydney before sunrise — the ocean still dark, a thin band of orange opening the horizon, the wind cold enough to keep me alert. I picked up a camera in 2014 to try to hold onto moments like that one, and in the years since, very little has changed about why I do this.

I make photographs of the Australian landscape — its coasts, its bushland, its quiet inland places. Most of my work is made close to home, along the cliffs and beaches between the Royal National Park and the Central Coast, in the Blue Mountains, and across the Southern Highlands. Beyond that, I travel further from time to time — to the fjords and alpine lakes of New Zealand, the national parks of the United States, and the quiet mountains and forests of Japan, drawn to new light, new country, and the quiet thrill of standing somewhere I've never stood before...

I work slowly, and almost always alone. I prefer the hour before sunrise to almost any other time of day — the silence, the way the light arrives in layers, the sense that the land is rehearsing something before the world arrives to watch. Patience is the only real technique I trust. A great deal of what I do involves driving long distances, walking the last stretch on foot, and waiting for conditions that may or may not come.

The image made in the field is only half the work. The other half is quieter, made at a desk, often late at night. I edit slowly, in careful passes — finding the balance of the light, drawing the eye gently through the frame, holding true to the colours that were actually there. I'm trying to bring you back to the feeling of standing in that place: the cool air, the hush, the particular blue of a coastal dawn. 

My prints are produced on archival fine art paper and museum-grade substrates, in close collaboration with a small group of Sydney printers I've worked with for years. Each piece is made to last for generations. I sell to private collectors, designers, and commercial clients across Australia and abroad, and I'm always happy to talk through a space, a size, or a specific image you have in mind.

Over the years, my work has found its way onto walls I'm proud of — including Crown Resorts Sydney and a number of Head On Photo Festival exhibitions, alongside private collections across Australia and abroad.

If something on this site speaks to you, please reach out. The work is meant to live on walls — not just on screens.