Yass was born in London. She studied at the Slade School of Art from 1982 to 1986 and then at Goldsmiths College, from where she graduated in 1990.
Yass is noted for her very brightly coloured photographs, a number of which present an image which is a combination of the positive and negative. Many of her works are mounted on light boxes.
Yass's subjects are varied: her 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 Spitalfields Market in London, and another, Corridor (1994), of a mental hospital.
Other series included shots of toilets, steel mills in Wales and Star, a series of pictures of Indian Bollywood stars displayed alongside pictures of empty cinemas.
Yass has also worked with video. Descent (2002) is a film made 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), resulting in images of vertical streaks and blurred patches of colour.
In 2000, Yass designed the christmas tree for Tate Britain, and in 2002 she was shortlisted for the Turner Prize.