Laurence Miller Gallery is pleased to present Fan Ho: Hong Kong, 1952-1964, Mr. Ho’s first one-person photography exhibition in New York. Born in Shanghai in 1932, his family later migrated to Hong Kong, where he began to experiment with still photography. During the next
20 years he won over 250 international awards and competitions for his experimental and unconventional photographs, and established himself as a major filmmaker. Carnal Desire, Szechuan Concubine, Taipai My Love, Lost, and Miserable Girl have all become cult classics.

Hong Kong 1952-1964 will feature approximately 12 vintage black-and-white photographs taken in the streets, slums and markets of Hong Kong.  Applying Bauhaus-inspired points of view and a strong sense of abstraction, Fan Ho captured the texture of daily life within the multiculturalism of that unique cosmopolitan Chinese city.

“Man on the Ropes, 1960” is a tall vertical panoramic, in which a single figure precariously clings to a rope that is likely part of a sailing ship. His precariousness may be seen as a metaphor for the life of a typical Hong Kong resident living under Chinese and British rule. “In the Still of the Night, 1958,” suggests two figures emerging from darkness across railroad tracks that glow like the path of a comet in the night sky.

Fan Ho’s photographs have been widely collected and exhibited in Europe and Asia, as well as by numerous private collections in the U.S., most recently by the Margulies Collection in Miami.  

Hong Kong (shadows), 1952
1.9375 x 3 inch silver print

Horizontal Market View, 1962
2.875 x 18.875 inch silver print