Catherine Yass was born in London in 1963. In 1982, she studied at the Slade School of Art, London and later at Hochschule der Künste, Berlin. In 1990, she graduated with an MA from Goldsmiths College, London.

Yass is noted for her brightly-coloured photographs installed in light boxes, a number of which present an image which is a combination of the positive and negative.

Yass’s early works often depict the people and institutions who commissioned, supported or curated her work. Later she concentrated on interiors, making a series of photos of Smithfield Market in London, and another, Corridor (1994), of a mental hospital. Others include shots of toilets, steel mills in Wales, and Star, a series of pictures of Indian Bollywood stars displayed alongside pictures of empty cinemas.

Yass also works with film. In 2002, she made Descent by lowering the camera in a crane over a construction site at London’s Canary Wharf. With a moving camera, she also took a series of still photographs (such as Descent: HQ5: 1/2s, 4.7°, Omm 40mph).

Special commissions include Merce Cunningham, Split Sides, Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York, touring to Paris, Seoul and Barbican, London, and still touring. Public collections include the Arts Council of England, Tate London, the National Museum and Galleries of Wales, and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

In 2000, Yass designed the Christmas tree for Tate Britain, and in 2002 was shortlisted for the Turner Prize.