Sotheby’s Hong Kong Gallery is hosting an exhibition called “Visual Dialogues: Hong Kong through the Lens of Fan Ho”, showcasing over 30 vintage works by the celebrated photographer. Fan Ho is known for his nostalgic photography that documents life in old Hong Kong, mainly during the 1950s and 1960s. Significantly, this is also the first public exhibition of Fan Ho’s photography, books, awards and the original Rolleiflex F3.5 camera that he used throughout his lifetime.
Born in 1931 in Shanghai, Fan Ho began taking pictures at just ten years old, using his father’s discarded Kodak Brownie camera. On his 18th birthday, his father gave him a Rolleiflex F3.5 twin-lens camera. This birthday gift spurred his interest in photography, and he used it to take all his award-winning images. In 1949, Fan Ho moved to Hong Kong with his family, where he continued pursuing his passion for photography, specifically street photography.
Described as the “Cartier-Bresson of the East”, Fan Ho received close to 300 local and international photography awards and titles for his work that documents everyday street-life in Hong Kong in the 1950s and 1960s. He later became an actor before moving into film directing until his retirement at age 65. Additionally, he also taught photography and film-making at various universities worldwide. Fan Ho passed away in 2016 at the age of 84.
Meanwhile, a new photo book titled “Portrait of Hong Kong” has been published to praise Fan Ho’s work in photography. This new volume features some of the never-before-seen images that were created and cropped by Fan Ho, which takes readers on a journey back to old Hong Kong. “Portrait of Hong Kong” is not only the fourth photo book of Fan Ho after his retirement, but also his last “director’s cut” before his death. He selected nearly 500 old negatives from his private collection, cropping them in his signature style, to produce good old memories of a bygone Hong Kong.
The exhibition runs until June 30, 2017.
Sotheby’s Hong Kong Gallery
5/F One Pacific Place, 88 Queensway
