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Justin Wu – How to make it in Fashion

The life of a fashion photographer is never easy, something News Editor Monica Blaylock learned as she tracked down former Western student Justin Wu before he hopped on a jet to Paris.

Having been a serious name in the world of fashion photography for only a year, Justin Wu’s overnight success is nothing shy of incredible.

Wu has shot in Milan and Paris fashion weeks, produced videos for Victoria’s Secret and Holt Renfrew and worked with the likes of Terry Richardson and Lady Gaga. For 24-year-old Wu, this journey has been a whirlwind.

Strangely enough, for Wu, the decision to try and make it in the fashion industry wasn’t an easy one. In fact it almost didn’t happen. After studying biology in his undergrad at Queen’s University and completing a degree from the Richard Ivey School of Business, Wu was nearly swayed from following his dream.

“I’ve almost fallen into that trap two or three times,” Wu jokes,about his potential career in medicine or business.

“In my last year of science I knew my passion was photography. I didn’t want to go into medicine and yet, through peer pressure, I applied to med school anyways. Even when I was at Ivey I applied to the standard investment banking and consulting firms, but it was a complete waste of time,” he says with a laugh, admitting if he hadn’t taken the leap into the world of fashion when he did, he probably never would have.

Wu’s career began in his undergrad where his good friend Gab Kokas, a fine art student, pushed him to further explore his interest in art photography.

“Meeting Gab on my floor in residence at Queen’s was 1 in 1,000,” Wu recalls, crediting Gab as his inspiration for pursuing the arts.  Soon after this life-altering friendship formed, Wu landed a private gallery show of his work in Kingston.

“That was when I thought, ‘maybe there’s some potential in it after all,’” Wu recalls.

After graduating from Queen’s, Wu decided to go to Ivey in hopes of building the entrepreneurial skills necessary to market himself as photographer. However, he was quick to notice that the world of art photography wasn’t very lucrative.

“I thought, ‘what area in photography can combine art with regular clients?’ and the closest one was fashion,” Wu says.

“To start up my career I took some photos of friends and in my spare time learned about the fashion industry. Very quickly I was introduced to the model agency world and began doing work for them [..] by Christmas I was working in New York City,” he adds.

Professionals in the industry noted that, for an up-and-comer like Wu, it would be best to start his career in Europe and then move back to North America.  Taking industry advice,  Wu took advantage of Ivey’s international exchange program and headed to Paris in his second year.

“Through some miracle, school didn’t start for a month and a half when I arrived in Paris because of construction problems. So while I was there the modeling agencies I was working with in New York — Elite and Ford — recommended me to the Paris office, and I did some work for them,” Wu says.

“‘From then I just went from magazine to magazine, then brands, then it just escalated to the point where its become a whirlwind. Now I’m shooting between the biggest cities in the world – London, New York and Paris,” he says with a laugh, confessing that since then life has been a blur.

While his success is still on the rise, he’s certainly pleased with the direction of his career.

“I still remember the days of sitting in Western dreaming of working in the industry. I dreamed of working in Paris alongside celebrities – not shooting them as paparazzi, but actually working alongside them to create some kind of art form. It’s been a dream,” he says. “I’m not even sure if I’m awake.”

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