Terry To

Visionary/Videographer/Graphic Designer/Photographer

@dadudeterry

https://terry.to/

Terry has a tattoo of an image taken by famed photographer, Fan Ho on his right arm. It’s a black and white still with silhouettes of people walking up and down and around a busy staircase.

Terry currently works at Greytone Music, his roles include videography and motion graphics but he does much more. My shoot of Terry took place in the smoking room of Kingdom C’s office. He tells me he doesn’t really have a place that really inspires him or has any special meaning to the creation of his work because he can work anywhere.

I have known Terry since 2012 when our mutual friend (Takahiro Kurihara, check him out too @kuriiro) borrowed a lens of mine to do a photoshoot on a clothing brand they were working on. While I was messing around in middle school school, Terry, at the age of 15 had already began his graphic design career.

He started early because he needed to stand out. He didn’t like the academic competition in his high school and so decided to carve his name outside of academics. Thus leading to his adventure into the arts. Shortly after beginning his journey, he understood he needed to make money out of his talent. That’s exactly what he did in 2012 with the creation of his graphic t-shirt brand ‘Triple Tee’s'

I chose to shoot and converse with Terry because of how iconic his work is. It’s grunge, it’s dark, it’s noisy…It’s just so… Terry. Once you’ve seen his work you’ll recognise it anywhere. He tells me his belief on the importance of imprinting his identity into his work and making sure people could recognise it at a glance. I couldn’t agree more, but I seem to struggle with it.

The only way I could think of to describe his work is ‘anti-perfectionism’. Although he shoots on digital for his professional work, he chases the look of film in post processing because of what film represents. It’s the unpredictability, the texture, it’s representation of a moment in time, and the feeling it captures.

I asked if he ever second guessed his work or edits (something I struggle a lot with). He answered that has never really been a problem. I saw it in his eyes. the quick response, and the confidence. He believed chasing perfection was pointless and that his work represented how he felt in a given moment, and with a satisfying edit, he throws it into the world.

Terry is a visionary and is apart of a larger movement with a goal of changing Hong Kong’s culture. He believes Hong Kong culture, especially in music, has stagnated for too long and he’s helping in shaking things up.

In 5 years time he sees himself in England in a senior designer role after gaining experience in Hong Kong.

Near his Fan Ho tattoo, there’s a smiley, but also sad face tattoo.