The brilliance of Fan Ho

[CWyatt]

Thought I'd post something that might be of interest, even to those very familiar with the usual classic greats of street photography. Fan Ho is a Chinese photographer (b. Shanghai 1931) who is, perhaps not overlooked, but almost undoubtedly not as well known outside of East Asia as the quality of his work might suggest. He is known outside there of course, to many photographers, but not globally to the extent he might be if he was mixing in France in the thirties or the States in the fifties.

Anyway, there is not a huge amount on Fan Ho online. I can't find any biographical article such as a Wikipedia entry or website. However he is represented by Modernbook publishers, and they've done a good job of putting up some of his work, and a very interesting video which gives information on Fan Ho as well as interviews him, but is hard to hear.

I find his work pretty stunning. You really are transported to the time and place. As well as the 'usual' qualities of great street stuff - interesting moments, beautiful light, shadows, people, geometry... he also often uses very unusual crops, which is interesting.

If you click on either 'Hong Kong Yesterday' or 'The Living Theatre' you'll see some work from two of his major books: Modernbook - Fan Ho

Here is the video with Fan Ho from 2009, now a very elderly man: Evening with Fan Ho on Vimeo

Enjoy.