Upon visiting Liverpool I got to experience Ren Hang’s photography up close and personal.
Curator Thomas Dukes gave us a guided tour of the exhibition and some explanation as to why he selected certain pieces of work and the arrangement of said work, as well as a brief history into the photographer.
Hang worked a lot with body, form and colour which could be seen time again throughout his work that were hung along the walls.
The Images above were taken by myself on the day to document some of Hang’s work but as I looked upon the different series of photographs I had an idea of interpreting Hang’s work in my own style.
I chose some of Hang’s portrait photography that I felt was very powerful and also photos that were located near or next to each other.
I then decided to double expose in camera one photo on top of the other in order to create another level of depth to the images.
Looking at the last image I took, this was the one I was most pleased with, because on their own the images stand out as being a testament to human connection, the subjects being shot completely nude but embracing each other, made me decide that the two images worked really well together and would work even better being composed into the same photo.
A good question was raised during the guided tour aimed towards to the Curator Thomas, trying to understand his thoughts on whether he believed Hang’s work to promote Male Gaze, or Orientalism.
The fact that Hang shot with primarily only Chinese models, most of them being his friends, and a lot of his subject focus within the gallery was of a particular women who was nude in nearly all of the photos, did not seem to in Duke’s eyes lean towards catering for Male Gaze or expressing a form of Orientalism.
Duke’s reply was one with which I agreed, that, to understand what he was aiming for you have to understand the climate in which Hang lived, and the reasons for doing what he did. He loved his work but also China has pretty heavy censorship regulations and so as I interpret that, it was Hang’s way of breaking the mould and going against an established regime or way of thinking in order to try and convey this sense of beauty within form.
Lance Muir 