Rising Stars: Meet Grant Hao-Wei Lin

Today we’d like to introduce you to Grant Hao-Wei Lin.

Hi Grant Hao-Wei, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Before becoming a multimedia artist, designer, and filmmaker, I worked as a User Experience/User Interface Designer for a few startups in Silicon Valley. While I had a great time working in the tech industry, I wanted to give myself an opportunity to pursue my artistic interests. I decided to attend an MFA in Photography at Parsons located in New York City, where I explored emerging technology and film as a medium. I am now freelancing as a cinematographer, designer, and photographer specializing in movement while pursuing my mixed media art on the side.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely has been a lot of ups and downs. Leaving a comfortable 9 to 5 environment hasn’t been easy in terms of money, but the reward of making that sacrifice and the work I have gotten to work on because of it have been great. Working as a photographer and filmmaker often requires a lot of physicalities from preproduction to postproduction – location scouting, equipment, shooting, and late nights up editing to name a few. However, the story you get to craft, design, and show to the world is absolutely priceless. As a creator who is queer and Asian, I want to be able to play a part in representing my community in a world that is often hostile to minorities and film gives me just that.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a Filmmaker, Designer, and Photographer based in Brooklyn, New York City. I have received awards and official selections from Queens World Film Festival, Los Angeles Indie Short Fest, San Francisco Arthouse Short Festival, and Phoenix Shorts Film Festival. I am most proud of a recent narrative music video/dance film I directed and produced with a choreographer and a composer called Empty Room. Empty Room is a story about a semi-closest gay man who wants to escape a cult and stands up for his authentic self. One thing that is special about my work – whether it is my film, UX design, or multimedia art – is my emphasis on movement and choreography. I care deeply about how my subject moves through spaces – digital or physical. I think that there is a lot of implication and stories to learn about a person or a character just by the different paths they chose to go from point A to point B. My role as a creator is to learn about that path and create a story accordingly that will live on forever.

What was your favorite childhood memory?
My favorite childhood memory was when I was gifted my first point-and-shoot sony camera when I was maybe 10. The functionality was way limited back then and each photo probably takes up less than a single megabyte. I remembered looking at the small display and zooming into the first photo I took and was amazed at how much detail the small camera was able to capture. Since then, I have been making all kinds of images and the journey never once stopped.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.granthaoweilin.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/boomnbust/

Image Credits
Grant Hao-Wei Lin, Beiyuan Zhang, Federica Berra, Azmi Mert Erdem