Shia Yang has a passion for creating visual art from a young age. During his early years, Yang frequently used his family's aged digital camcorder to capture short videos and photos of his siblings. While in college, Yang was a photographer and graphic designer for the Hmong Times and Hmong Pages newspaper. One of his responsibilities was photographing public events using an early version of a 2-megapixel digital camera in the early 2000s.

Yang discovered his passion for photography while working for the Hmong Times Newspaper. Throughout Yang's career with Hmong Times and the Hmong Pages Newspapers, he has contributed his photographic works to local authors and contributed a two-piece photograph to the MN Historical Society for the 2015 exhibit, "WE ARE HMONG," which commemorates the 40th year of Hmong in Minnesota.

Yang enjoys using digital rangefinder cameras to document portraits and create documentary pieces as a narrative. The rangefinder camera is distinct in its use of a viewfinder focus mechanism that overlaps two images for precise focus accuracy.

In 2022 and 2023, Yang participated in the annual Solidarity Street Gallery named 'Resilient Generation' and 'Faces of Our Communities in St. Paul's Eastside community.’ In December of 2022, a solo exhibition showcased a collection of 24 photographic pieces highlighting the Hmong American culture in Minnesota. The show took place at the Minneapolis Northeast Library.