Meet Hilary Yang. Photographer, ultrarunner, race director, graphic designer, and general badass from the West Coast. Hilary has chased large desires on the earth of ultrarunning, leaping in headfirst with each working and images. She’s even devoted a few of her work to making sure extra ladies are acknowledged within the sport. When not photographing different runners, she’s working across the mountains herself, prepping for her subsequent race. From the mountains of British Columbia to anyplace her ft can take her, Hilary is a Jane-of-all-tradesso let’s hear it from her:
Hilary Yang, a Jill-of-all-trades in relation to working and artistic initiatives. Photograph: Sarah Attar
Inform us a bit about your self!
My identify is Hilary Yang, and I put on a whole lot of inventive hats within the out of doors world. I’m initially from Vancouver, Canada, now residing in Los Angeles, California, with my husband, Billy Yangand our rescue pup, Charlie Salami. My journey into the inventive world of path working began after I fell in love with the game myself. I ran my first extremely in 2013 in Squamish, British Columbia, and was instantly obsessed. As I obtained into longer races, my coaching took me to more and more distant and delightful locations in British Columbia, and I quickly discovered myself pissed off that my humble little iPhone — not so fancy again then both — couldn’t do justice to the locations I used to be exploring.
I ended up diving into the world of images, taught myself tips on how to use a DSLR digital camera, and carried it with me all over the place for the subsequent few years. I subjected a whole lot of my pals to repeats on path runs as I labored out tips on how to get the shot and determine all of it out! There weren’t another ladies doing path images on the time I might discover, which additionally motivated me to seek out my area of interest. I began volunteering to shoot native path races to get extra expertise, and fairly quickly manufacturers began reaching out.
After a number of years, I made a decision to give up my company job, however as a substitute of simply going full-time with images, I went again to highschool to construct a broader inventive talent set. I accomplished a visible communications/graphic design program on the Emily Carr College of Artwork and Design in Vancouver. Once I graduated in 2017, I began constructing my very own enterprise, doing a mixture of path and out of doors images and graphic design work for whoever would rent me. I cold-called magazines attempting to get my work revealed, and obtained as scrappy as I might to get my identify and work on the market till I began getting some momentum.
Hilary Yang all smiles within the early miles of the 2025 Hardrock 100. Photograph: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
People appear central to your images. What evokes this?
I gravitate towards photographing people as a result of I’m enamored with the concept of capturing an emotion or feeling or story, all in a single body. To me, the best images I’ve ever taken are those that let you know a narrative in that second, whether or not it’s a glance in somebody’s eyes or the scene round them. Artwork ought to make you are feeling issues, and in my case, I’ve all the time wished my artwork to encourage others to perhaps dare to strive one thing daring themselves or to search for methods to really feel these emotions too. We reside life in such a secure “emotional” zone in some ways, and I believe the attract of ultrarunning is that it forces us into these uncomfortable but deeply susceptible and truthful moments. And my best satisfaction is to seek out that second and do it justice.
Who or what has been your favourite topic for images or design?
That’s such a troublesome query. I’ve been photographing runners for the previous 12 years, and plenty of unbelievable moments stand out. A few of my proudest images have been borne out of instances the place I used to be additionally pushed to my limits bodily and someway nonetheless discovered the vitality to be inventive as nicely, so these stand out to me. The primary journey I took to Nepal in 2017 with a bunch of climbers was very memorable in that method, and I ended up writing a function article and the quilt story for “Mountain Life” journal about it. The function images have been taken on a morning after we obtained up early to summit a peak at 18,000 ft, and it was so chilly that I couldn’t press the buttons on my digital camera, so I used to be utilizing my knuckles. A few of these images, framed towards the unbelievable backdrop of Lhotse, are ones I nonetheless look again on and am happy with for the non-public challenges in addition they represented.
On the design facet, I believe creating the imaginative and prescient and design for the Mammoth 200 Milewhich I additionally race directed and co-founded in 2025, was probably the most enjoyable initiatives I’ve finished. Attending to make one thing that was my very own, purely from scratch, was such a beautiful feeling, and it felt full circle in some ways.
Hilary at dwelling within the mountains. Photograph courtesy of Hilary Yang.
Is your inventive facet influenced by your working facet and vice versa?
My inventive and athletic sides are completely intertwined, and one of many issues I really like about out of doors images is that I nonetheless have to keep up the health and the technical expertise (whether or not that’s working, climbing, snowboarding, you identify it) to have the ability to sustain with the athletes I’m photographing. It all the time provides a novel problem. I’m very a lot impressed by my pure atmosphere, and I shoot primarily utilizing pure mild, so I all the time really feel like every shoot is a dialog, and generally negotiation, with Mom Nature.
Who has been the first catalyst in your life, each creatively and in working?
Actually, as I discussed earlier than, there have been no different ladies who have been combining the inventive world with path working after I first obtained into it. I had a few male pals who have been photographers in Vancouver, and all of us kind of dove into the path world on the identical time. To start with of my profession, I additionally obtained a good quantity of facet feedback, or individuals who appeared shocked that I might sustain with elite athletes or deal with the heavy packs required for distant backcountry days. It was an attention-grabbing time. As I obtained additional into the skilled world, I used to be very impressed by longtime Arc’teryx photographer Ange Percivalwho appeared like she had actually damaged by means of as a feminine badass photographer who labored with athletes on the highest ranges and had a whole lot of trade respect.
If you happen to might affect the working media, what would you modify about it?
Humorous you must ask. I co-founded the Right here For The Girls’s Race non-profit motion in 2024 with Corrine Malcolmpurely as a result of we have been pissed off on the lack of equal media protection of ladies’s races, and we have been bored with seeing them being handled as an afterthought. Clearly, a whole lot of different individuals felt that method, as a result of it’s ended up turning into a worldwide power, and I’m actually happy with the notice and help we’ve been capable of carry to ladies’s sport by means of it.
Hilary Yang talking on the ladies’s panel on the 2025 Hardrock 100. Photograph: Sarah Attar
I’m additionally an enormous advocate for locating methods to carry extra ladies into working media, particularly when it may be exhausting to interrupt into the boys’ membership or get manufacturers to take an opportunity on somebody new. Through the years, I’ve sought out methods to mentor different ladies into path working images, and I all the time attempt to make myself out there to different feminine photographers who come to me with questions. We’re all stronger after we rise collectively.
I’d say that’s the largest factor I’d wish to change, however truthfully, wanting round me on the Black Canyon Ultras not too long ago, I used to be so stoked to see so many ladies on the market taking wonderful images. It’s so freaking cool, and I consider ladies have a unique perspective and strategy to storytelling that’s so necessary to share. So the factor that’s been a wrestle in my very own profession is slowly altering, and I’m happy with the work that’s being finished on so many ranges to proceed that shift within the sport.
What recommendation would you give to your youthful self?
I didn’t develop up with ladies in my life who have been significantly athletic or sporty, not to mention these forging extra unconventional careers. I solely stumbled into path working in my mid-20s, and it was the extremely supportive neighborhood across the sport that basically sucked me in and hooked me. From there, it was actually a technique of discovering what was attainable. Whereas it’s by no means too late to begin at any age or stage of life, if I had the prospect to present my youthful self a bit life heads up, I might say to not be afraid to dream a bit greater and a bit in a different way than these round you, and to have fun being a powerful and cussed girl.
Rising up homeschooled and in a small rural city, my world was small — however I all the time knew there was a chunk of me that wouldn’t be pleased with out the prospect to push myself and see what was attainable. So yeah, I might have favored to go full ship a bit earlier in life simply to maximise my very own runway, however on the identical time, it’s all a part of the journey.
Any initiatives within the works, both working or picture/design collabs?
So many issues! Final yr was wildly busy. I obtained into Exhausting Rock 100 after 9 years of attempting, and efficiently educated and accomplished the loop, despite the fact that it was such a busy work and journey season. I co-founded the Mammoth 200 Mile together with Tim Tollefsonand was the race director the primary yr as we obtained it off the bottom, which was an extremely rewarding expertise.
Hilary Yang on the end of the 2025 Hardrock 100. Photograph: Sarah Attar
I additionally co-directed my first movie with my gifted good friend Carrie Highman. It’s known as “Elevate the Bar,” and it’s a celebration of the place ladies are within the sport at this time, framed towards the backdrop of the Western States 100. It’s popping out this spring with some cool occasions across the Western States Memorial Weekend Coaching Camp and race week, in order that’s one thing I’m very excited to interact with the neighborhood on this yr.
I made a decision to step away from race directing the Mammoth 200 Mile this yr as a result of I felt like I used to be dropping the stability between my inventive self and all the opposite hats I put on, and one mission that’s already emerged out of that newfound area is the prospect to be the visitor inventive director for an thrilling new chapter of “Just like the Wind Journal.” We could have extra on that quickly, but it surely’s been actually enjoyable to immerse myself within the intersection of inventive design and working once more. The yr is simply getting began, however I’m grateful to have already got a whole lot of superior issues to stay up for.
What sort of digital camera do you employ while you’re out working?
I used to run with my full Canon 5D DSLR, however as I’ve gotten older, I’ve discovered that working with a five-pound digital camera in my hand simply isn’t an superior expertise, so I have a tendency to save lots of the massive gear for precise devoted shoots or races now. Once I need a bit digital camera with me to seize a run or journey, I take advantage of my little Fujifilm X-T5 with a pancake 27-millimeter lens. As a result of it’s a cropped-sensor digital camera, it finally ends up being a 40-millimeter focal size, which is ideal for a common one-size-fits-all pocket digital camera, and it matches within the entrance pocket of my vest completely. I’ve dropped it quite a few instances, and the again contact display now not works, so I’ve to look by means of the viewfinder to take images, however I actually find it irresistible. It makes me really feel much more inventive than simply utilizing my iPhone.
Hilary Yang descending into Cunningham Gulch in the course of the 2025 Hardrock 100. Photograph: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
If you happen to might be a tree, what sort of tree would you be?
OMG, I’ve been ready for this query my entire life!! As a Pacific Northwest gal, I must go along with one of many large ol’ beauties from the forests up in British Columbia. There’s a super-famous Douglas fir tree on Vancouver Island that I’ve been privileged sufficient to go see — he’s known as “Massive Lonely Doug,” as a result of he’s the one old-growth tree left in an entire swatch of forest that was reduce down years in the past for logging. However he’s one of many largest Douglas firs on the earth, and he’s simply attractive — and 216 ft tall, which is insane. So I’d go along with Douglas fir.
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