Born and raised in Shenzhen — a fast-paced, youthful city in southern China — Randall found his voice not through words, but through images. He sharpened that vision on the freezing bleachers of Buffalo, where he first discovered the beating heart of American sports.

His camera became a cultural passport, transforming the perspective of a business student into that of a visual storyteller. From America’s vast sports cathedrals, Randall pursues not just the action, but what lies behind it: the soul of a city, the vulnerability of an athlete, the collective pulse of a community.

Now based in Ann Arbour, Michigan, he continues along the path of a young photographer who’s already grasped a simple, universal truth: sports don’t just live in scores, but in faces, silences, and symbols. In this conversation, Randall reflects on his journey — from China to the United States, from the stands to the sidelines — and on his dream to capture the untold stories of sports around the world.

From Shenzhen to Buffalo

“I was born and raised in Shenzhen, China — a proper business-oriented city where the headquarters of big brands are based, mostly internet companies and the electronics industry in general. There’s a lot of money flowing in, but not a lot of culture. It’s kind of a ‘recent’ city. It was built in 1979, when China started opening up to the world, with lots of exports, imports, and cultural exchange. That’s when China discovered and embraced U.S. culture — and, speaking of sports, basketball culture. I grew up loving the NBA. I remember being in middle school, watching LeBron and Steph in the Finals. That stuck with me. I always fantasized about American basketball culture, reading magazines about the stories of each player, team, and coach. I was a big LeBron fan at the time, and if I had had the opportunity to go to America, I wouldn’t have gone to L.A. or New York — I wanted to go to Cleveland, Ohio.

When I was about to finish middle school, my parents got busier with their careers. They were away most of the time and didn’t have much time to take care of me and my sister, so they gave us the option to study abroad. Of course, I chose the U.S. route and ended up in Buffalo, New York — a very low-key, cold, and snowy part of the States.

When you think of New York, you think of New York City, but the second biggest city is Buffalo. That’s where I had my first real contact with American football. I lived with a host family who would gather with friends and watch football on Sundays — eat food, drink beers in the backyard, and just watch the game. That was a real awakening moment for me. The sports culture there is on another level. It brings families together. It keeps conversations going. It defines a region. In Buffalo, it’s all about the Bills. The football team is everything. It determines the city’s spirit, how people interact through sports. It even influences the kids.

From that moment on, I started to dive deeper into American sports culture. Everything felt so fresh to me. I was surrounded by friends who had grown up with it, so they were used to it. But for me, everything was new — so vivid and vibrant. You don’t get any of that where I come from. In China, it’s all about studying for exams and grinding for work. Basketball — sports in general — is almost seen as a distraction. Teachers and parents don’t like it if you play every day, even if it’s good for your body. I feel really blessed that I was able to escape that system by coming to the States and experiencing this sports culture with my own eyes.”

Falling in love with sports photography

“Going to the States, I had more free time and more independence. That’s how I picked up photography — as a way to explore my hobbies. I fell in love with it because when I first moved, my English wasn’t very good; I was still learning. The English taught in China is different from what people actually use every day in the U.S., with all the slang. Photography became my way to express myself and tell sports stories without having to describe them in words. It even helped me start making friends.

I was on the basketball team in high school and involved in a lot of sports in general at the time. Then Covid hit. That’s when I got my first camera. I bought a used Sony A6000 off Facebook Marketplace, and it came with a zoom lens, 55- 210mm — a very budget-friendly setup that served my first 3 years.

I took it with me to baseball practice. That was the moment I started experimenting with shutter speeds, trying to figure out manual settings and other things I had just learned from YouTube a couple of hours before. I remember shooting one of the players catching a fly ball. When I looked through my camera and saw the photo, it was perfectly sharp at the exact moment the player grabbed the ball. It felt surreal — the ability to freeze a moment where the glove was still open, but the ball hadn’t quite landed yet.

It felt magical. From then on, I just kept going. While photographing baseball, I started branching out into portraiture and events. Wherever I went, I brought my camera.”

University sports culture

“Before choosing university in Michigan, I went to Minnesota — also a Big Ten school. It’s smaller and less competitive than Michigan and not as historic, but being part of the Big Ten means it still has a lot of resources. I started college studying business because I wanted to go into consulting. In terms of photography, I would go to all the college sporting events as a fan in my free time, and that’s how my style began to take shape — just experimenting with different angles.

At the time, I was still trying to figure out who I was going to be. That period was tough because I kept emailing directors of photography and other creatives, but when they saw my work, they were hesitant. This was before my Instagram grew — I only had around 500 followers. My images didn’t look like the standard sharp, “Getty-style” sports photography. I kept emailing people and got no responses. But honestly, that might have been the most valuable thing that happened to me as a photographer. Redirection is always the key. All those ‘no’s made me who I am today, and helped me see more clearly. One thing I always carry with me from China is the idea that good comes with bad, and bad comes with good. Positives and negatives are always happening at the same time.

After my first two years in Minnesota, I was looking for something more. Michigan was my number-one choice, so I applied and transferred. That was probably the most important decision of my life. I started working at the Michigan Engineering department as a marketing and communications intern thanks to Branda Ahearn, a university photographer. She was the first mentor I ever had, and her influence has shaped every part of my growth in the last year. Coming from a newspaper background, she could have steered me toward convention, but instead she encouraged me to chase my own vision. She guided me not just in the technical and professional, but in life itself. Brenda taught me what it means to connect with other human beings through a camera, to explore the creative and spiritual sides of the craft—the Tao of photography.

At the same time, I kept showing up at athletic events and football games, just to watch and take photos. After two months, my boss Brenda noticed my passion for sports and suggested I try photographing a football game through the Engineering department. At the time, the idea felt almost ridiculous—I didn’t think I was professional or good enough to belong on the sideline. But Brenda wouldn’t let that doubt stop me. She sat me down, pulled up the credential application I had been staring at for months, and walked me through filling it out. “The worst they can say is no,” she told me. Two days later, I was credentialed. Michigan’s stadium, known as “The Big House,” is the largest in the US. That night, standing on the sidelines and supporting my school’s football team felt like a huge milestone. We were playing the number one team in the country at the time — the University of Oregon — and we got beat badly, but I had so much fun and creative freedom. The photos I took that night really got the ball rolling. I joined the school newspaper, The Michigan Daily, and they provided me with credentials to shoot other Michigan sports games throughout the season.

Just six months ago, I was deciding between taking a UX design internship or starting to work as a freelance photographer in New York City. Around that time, I got my first real branded assignment with On, which flew me out to Philadelphia. That experience was amazing. Right after that job, I knew what I wanted to do. I turned down the internship and moved to New York to pursue photography full-time. Now I’m here, working with brands I love, photographing sports, and living my dream.”

Emotions & Stories

“During my first two years of college, I focused on developing my style — experimenting with blurs, angles, camera movements, and ways to tell a story better. Walter Iooss Jr. was my biggest inspiration. I still have his Michael Jordan dunk photo hanging on my wall. His ability to create timeless images really opened my mind.

For me, sports photography isn’t only about the action — it can be about quiet moments, the fans, or small details that make a difference. At the end of the day, I’m not a photojournalist. I don’t work for newspapers, so I don’t have to follow rules. That creative freedom allows me to push my photography further. Since I couldn’t access the sidelines at first, I had to figure out new and “strange” angles in stadiums. I’d go really high up, or right in the middle of die-hard fans. I loved the freedom to move around and find unique perspectives.

The main goal behind my photography is to help people really understand what’s going on emotionally. I think emotions and stories have to go hand in hand.

I usually have this habit — whenever I go to a sporting event, I take a walk first. I try to feel the vibe of the environment. I put my camera down and just observe: what looks good from certain angles, what’s inside the frame, and what might, later in the right moment, become a perfect shot.

To be honest, it takes a lot of trial and error. A lot of times things don’t go the way you expect. Sometimes you’re waiting for that perfect moment — for a player to come right at you with the perfect lighting — but it doesn’t happen. For me, taking a good photo is like playing a slot machine. It’s not really about the good photos; it’s about the ones in between all the bad ones. If you see me publish 10 photos, that means I probably took almost 2,000. That kind of reflects my journey as well. It’s all about failing, so that you can recognize what success looks like.”

The true power of Photography

“If I have to recall one special project, it would be the one with Charles Du, a Chinese Notre Dame football player. It was the first time I felt I was doing something truly meaningful — both for myself and for my Asian community within the American sports space.

Charles and I connected on a Chinese social media platform called REDnote, where he asked me to shoot him playing. At the time, I didn’t even know there was a Chinese-born American football player in one of the best college programs.

I checked out his story and immediately wanted to make something happen. He suggested I come to their playoff game against Indiana. There was no budget, so I had to pay for the expenses to get to the small town of South Bend, Indiana and ticket myself. I felt like I was the only one who could really showcase his story through a reportage, and I wanted to do it so badly that I maxed out my credit card to buy a last-minute ticket. The whole state of Indiana seemed to show up — the energy was electric, traffic was insane, and it was freezing cold. I met Charles’s mother and girlfriend there, and we all connected. One of the biggest moments that blew up from that game was his jersey. He hadn’t told me anything about it beforehand. Usually in Notre Dame football, players don’t have nameplates on the back of their jerseys. He had managed to get his name printed in Chinese characters — it was a huge cultural moment.

I was able to capture some photos of him during warm-ups, wearing that jersey without his helmet so his face was visible. The day after, I published the image, and some Notre Dame media outlets picked it up and reposted it. Overnight, it was all over the internet. That experience showed me the power of the right photograph. Even though the image wasn’t stylistically special, it connected to a much bigger story — representation within sports.”

Sports Storytelling in China

“I definitely want to tell sports stories in my hometown, in China. The NBA fandom there is insane. All the big basketball brands have entered the market with activations and China tours, bringing players in to do events. But still, there are so many untold stories about basketball in China. Growing up, I remember going to the court every day with my friends, shooting three-pointers while being fascinated by Steph Curry — and every time we took a fadeaway shot, we’d shout ‘Kobe!’ out loud. Those were meaningful, powerful cultural moments for me. That’s why I want to go back to China and document Chinese basketball culture.

There are still a lot of cultural gaps in how the rest of the world sees China. I feel like photographers and creatives have both the platform and the audience to highlight our stories in the right way. I just hope to be one of those storytellers, doing my best to represent and report on sports in China.”