Fan Ho's work - more at PetaPixel

peterm1

peterm1

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Someone posted an earlier link to Fan Ho's black and white photos of 1950s Hong Kong. PetaPixal has posted some more on him a couple of days ago. Great compositions - exactly the sort of work I adore and strive for in my own stuff (and so often miss) It's the difference between just photography and real art.

http://petapixel.com/2014/10/22/the-art-of-photography-dives-into-the-incredible-work-of-fan-ho/


The earlier PetaPixel article link is found here:

http://petapixel.com/2014/08/25/fan...-white-street-photography-of-1950s-hong-kong/


My own attempts in Hong Kong in 2012 (one day...one day!)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/life_in_shadows/sets/72157631879282028/


For anyone interested in Hong Kong generally there is also Michael Rogge's movie work. He was posted to HK in the early 1950s with a bank where he indulged his passion for filming his life and times in this exotic location. While I prefer photography as art - particularly Fan Hos which is brilliantly composed and executed, I still enjoyed watching these wonderful images which evoke an earlier time and place.

https://www.youtube.com/user/MichaelRogge?gl=NL&hl=nl

 
many thanks for the link Peter. I only learnt of Fan Ho's work when the first PetaPixel article was published, and I was blown away by the quality.
 
My first impression is an admiration of how skillfully he uses backlighting in his photos. Just look at the shadows and you'll see it.
 
Mablo said:
My first impression is an admiration of how skillfully he uses backlighting in his photos. Just look at the shadows and you'll see it.
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Me too. Its something that I generally find to be difficult to get with digital photography - the lovely tones and tonality changes are very problematic as digital does not seem to lend itself to that kind of gentle change from dark to bright with nice soft flare. This is an area where film excels.
 
peterm1 said:
Me too. Its something that I generally find to be difficult to get with digital photography - the lovely tones and tonality changes are very problematic as digital does not seem to lend itself to that kind of gentle change from dark to bright with nice soft flare. This is an area where film excels.
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People often use too much sharpening too, which takes you even further away from an old school look.

The best start would be to reduce pixel count, use older lenses and get damn good at processing. IMO the best grounding for a digital photographer looking to make great B&W is in a wet darkroom.....
 
Interesting!
I'm not into pictures in video. It is like eating canned fish from the tin.
Checked earlier article, all of his pictures shown where are contre-jour kind of. I liked it.
 
Thank you, Peter. I was not familiar with him. What a treat.

I just read an interview with him in which he was asked his favorite all-time photographer. He replied "Cartier-Bresson." The interviewer then asked his favorite contemporary photographer. Again, "Cartier Bresson." It shows, doesn't it? Fan Ho's geometry outdoes even the geometry master.

I found it interesting that he said how much he loves the square format, while he seems to crop every which way but square.

John
 
shooting against the light of Fan Ho is very impressive indeed, great photography, that you for sharing!

..
Let me point at a contemporary photographer in Hongkong, Jonathan von Smit, though a 'Gweilo' and possibly being too 'contrasty' to some, very well documenting certain aspects of Hongkong life: https://www.flickr.com/photos/37482335@N00/
 
Lovely work, there's breathtaking sensibility in his photos.

johnwolf said:
I just read an interview with him in which he was asked his favorite all-time photographer. He replied "Cartier-Bresson." The interviewer then asked his favorite contemporary photographer. Again, "Cartier Bresson." It shows, doesn't it? Fan Ho's geometry outdoes even the geometry master.

...
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He may have admired Cartier-Bresson but he is different in some important ways. For example, he was very open to the possibility of altering radically a scene, if an alteration was of benefit. Cartier-Bresson was, well, not so much. :p


http://www.bbc.com/travel/blog/20121101-hong-kongs-vintage-style-in-photos

...When his family later moved to Hong Kong, Ho's fascination with street scenes deepened. He would spend hours each day skulking around the now-defunct Central Market, waiting for the perfect combination of lighting and composition before he pressed the shutter.

But despite his desire to record spontaneous moments, one of his most famous images, Approaching Shadow (1964) -- which appears in the exhibition -- is deliberately staged. He asked his cousin to don a cheongsam (a traditional Chinese dress) and photographed her against a white wall. In the darkroom during the development process, he introduced a triangular shadow that cuts diagonally across the frame towards its downward-looking subject. According to Ho, the dark half of the photograph represents the imminent end of her innocence....
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He is not ill-disposed to alternative processes either:

http://www.modernbook.com/fanho.htm

...In 2010, Fan Ho revisited negatives from the Hong Kong era that were never printed. By physically holding up two negatives up to the light, Fan Ho would play with composition. Once he created something that pleased him he would place the sandwiched negatives on the scanner and digitize it...
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An exceedingly interesting photographer, however you cut it.

.
 
So happy that his work is being made accessible to those of us not familiar with it.
He's a giant of a man in B&W and a great photographer of street.
 
johnwolf said:
Thank you, Peter. I was not familiar with him. What a treat.

I just read an interview with him in which he was asked his favorite all-time photographer. He replied "Cartier-Bresson." The interviewer then asked his favorite contemporary photographer. Again, "Cartier Bresson." It shows, doesn't it? Fan Ho's geometry outdoes even the geometry master.

I found it interesting that he said how much he loves the square format, while he seems to crop every which way but square.

John
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Thank you, I agree his being influenced by HCB does show. Very much.

A few years ago there was a HCB retrospective doing the rounds of galleries and I was happy to have the chance to see it while it was in Brisbane, Australia. What struck me was that while we all know his (HCB's) more famous works, unsurprisingly his whole body of work is much larger but the thing I did not really expect is that in some ways it is even more impressive. I really did feel that some of his less known photos are in some ways, more interesting and engaging than the famous ones. I have no idea why some of those images have never got the attention they deserve.

And having seen that wider range of HCB work and now, some of Fan Ho's work I can definitely agree that Fan Ho has been influenced very, very strongly by him. The placement of figures in the image, the strong and characteristic use of light and shade, including contre jour, the geometric shapes and so forth are all pure HCB - but with Fan Ho's own special something. In my view he will be recognized as one of the great photographers of the 20th C. He really is that good.

His aesthetic really appeals to me. All of us photographers who are interested in photography as an art form could do worse than to study Fan Ho and learn from him. Seeing it again does make me wonder if I should get my film camera out once more as it seems to me that film is better with this kind of work than digital given present day sensors still relatively limited ability to represent such wide ranges of tonal values. They are getting much better though.
 
A Fan Ho PSA

I became interested in Fan Ho through his Facebook page and ordered his new book, "Hong Kong Memoirs". I really wanted the older book Hong Kong Yesterday but could not find it anywhere. A few days ago I received an email about a new printing of "Hong Kong Yesterday" and "The Living Theatre" stating that those who purchased the new book "Memoirs" will be given an opportunity to buy the older books.

I looked on the website www.modernbook.com and did not see where Hong Kong Yesterday and the Living Theater could be purchased.

Maybe Modern Book publishers could shed some light on the availability of HK Yesterday and The Living Theatre.
 
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