From shooting cupcakes to breaking barriers with Adobe Stock Artist, Yuya Parker

Image credit: Adobe Stock / Yuya Parker, courtesy the artist.

Guided by a powerful sense of curiosity, Yuya Parker took several detours on his journey to becoming a photographer and director.

After high school, he traveled from his small rural hometown in Japan to Tokyo, where he began studying architecture. But he soon realized he was more interested in landscape design, so he decided to move to California.

“The TV show The OC was so popular back then, and I was also wanting to study English,” he says. “So, I moved to Los Angeles because of that.” Once in LA, he enrolled in English language courses just as another big moment arrived in US pop culture: the cupcake boom.

“There were lots of new cupcake shops and coffee shops opening up, so every weekend I went to a different one and started taking photos,” Parker says. He got enough compliments for his shots that he began to see photography as more than a hobby.

“It’s the excitement that kept me going,” he says. “I didn’t really think about making a career out of it or anything like that. I was just interested and wanted to know more. To be able to share the work with viewers, whoever they are, whether it’s fine art or commercial — that excites me.”

A passion for still life photography

Initially, Parker wanted to be a fashion photographer, but he lacked confidence in his ability to get to know the subjects of his photos. “I think the communication part of it was a little bit challenging for me,” he says.

As he worked on his cupcake photo shoots, he realized that he enjoyed spending hours looking at an object, changing the lighting or the arrangement to see what he could create.

“It’s like this really quiet, simple communication I have with objects,” he says. “It feels like meditating, in a sense. With still life, I have imagination — it’s more like a painting. For example, when you are making a painting, you might want to show a warm feeling, so you can add warm tones. I’m trying to do the same thing in photography — express the small joyful moments.”

Parker likes to begin his photography productions with drawings or sketches. If he needs inspiration, he’ll often go to a grocery store or farmer’s market, or just take a walk. “I’ll find an interesting or fun object, and then my imagination evolves,” he says. “I’ll go back to my sketchbook and make an illustration, and then I’ll try to make that happen in my photos.”

Expanding his horizons with help from the Adobe Stock Artist Development Fund

As much as Parker loves still life photography, in recent years he’s branched out and found success working with human subjects. In 2021, he received funding from the Adobe Stock Artist Development Fund, a creative commission program for artists who self-identify with and depict diverse communities within their work.

For his Artist Development Fund project, he created images and videos in response to the Joyful Rhythm creative brief. He says his project, titled Jiyū or Freedom, explores the space between cultural expectations and authentic expression. He worked with Asian dancers in LA and captured them showing emotion through movement.

“My upbringing in Japan taught me many beautiful traditions, but dancing was not available to me,” he says. “I wanted to show the stories of others enjoying dancing outside of traditional expectations and capture the sense of freedom that dancing gives them.”

Following on the success of Jiyū, Parker did another commission focused on members of the transgender community. For that project, he says, “I really loved the idea of showing the everyday lives of people in the community, just living their lives, going to work. It was a really fun project, and I became close friends with many of the talents from the shoot.”

Creating work that counters stereotypes

Both projects got him thinking about how people are often pigeonholed based on aspects of their identities, and that’s made him consider the messages he wants to share through his photographs. Regarding the Jiyū project, he says, “My message was, what you see is not everything. Just because people don’t dance doesn’t mean they don’t want to dance. Those are the types of barriers or stereotypes we have about how certain cultures work.” Parker’s images push against stereotypes to show people’s full humanity.

“I think my photography can break the little barrier people have,” he says. “I’m not a really good communicator in person, but I feel like I can do that in my photography. I see a trend of being true to yourself or being authentic, and I’m really happy that’s happening.”

Despite his success as an Adobe Stock artist, Parker doesn’t necessarily see himself as a photographer. “To me at least, the camera is just a tool to make my imagination happen,” he says. “As photography becomes your career, it’s sometimes hard to enjoy it, or you forget to enjoy it. So my advice to others would be to keep enjoying taking photos and trust your instincts.”

Explore Yuya Parker’s portfolio on Adobe Stock. Then create your own Adobe Stock Contributor profile and upload your work to get exposure to creative customers all over the world.