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The first time I heard the name He Fan was in a photographer's instructional video.
In the video, the photographer mentioned his love for street photography and his understanding of the application of black and white, light and shadow, and geometric figures in street photography. He said that someone had told him in a comment that looking at his photos reminded him of He Fan.
Out of curiosity, the photographer went to investigate. As a result, he found that everything he did, He Fan had done as early as the 1950s in Hong Kong, using film to achieve the ultimate.
● Afternoon gossip about He Fan's works
Fan Ho is an internationally recognized master photographer. Since 1956, he has won more than 280 national and international photography awards. Since 1958, he has been awarded the title of "World's Top Ten" by the Photographic Society of America for eight consecutive years, and has become an honorary member of many international photographic societies.
This "approaching shadow" is He Fan's most widely known photographic work.
In the picture, the light and shadow are simple, constituting geometric figures, and the sense of abstraction of the picture comes from this. Although the woman with her head bowed occupies a small space, because of the contrast between light and shadow, it is the object that people see for the first time. She seems to be contemplating, and it also leads us to think - the change of light and shadow is a metaphor for time, what is she lamenting? Are you sighing, the vicissitudes of the sea, the passage of time?
He Fan himself explained it this way: "This means that her youth will eventually pass, and everyone has the same fate. There's a little bit of tragedy in it. ”
But the name He Fan is far more than the photographic world. He is also an actor and a director. It can be said that he is obsessed with light and shadow, and he has left a permanent imprint on Hong Kong under his lens.
● lonely stroll
Born in Shanghai in 1931, He Fan was already a small photography enthusiast when he was a teenager. Before the age of 14, one of his father's Kodak brownie cameras was borrowed by He Fan for practice.
At the age of 14, his father gave him a rolleiflex k4a. Since then, Ho Fan has been shuttling through the streets and alleys day by day, photographing street vendors and some children who are younger than him. Such a subject matter has run through his entire photography career. The smell of the street has become the object of He Fan's most efforts to capture in his shots.
He Fan once said that photography should have three arrivals, one is the eye, the second is the hand, and the third is the heart. Photographers must not only see a scene that is different from others, but also have enough photography skills to take this picture.
However, no matter how skilled the photographer, if he presses the shutter without purpose and feeling, he will only get a waste film.
● Back alley
He has always been interested in photography. In 1949, Ho Fan moved to Hong Kong with his family. At this time, as an adult, he studied literature at New Asia College (the predecessor of hong Kong Chinese University) and aspired to become a writer.
Ancient poems and operas were often read by He Fan; the tragedies of ancient Greece and Hemingway's novels were also in his hands. But the heavens are not beautiful, He Fan suffered from a serious headache, the book could not be read, the word could not be written, he had to start another stove, bring his thinking about social and humanistic, bring it to the back of the camera, and integrate it into every shutter sound.
But it was his reading—these dramatic, story-tensioned plots—that gave him humanistic care in his photography and made him pay more attention to people's daily lives.
His favorite spots to take are the sea and the streets. When taking pictures, He Fan has extraordinary patience, he is always waiting, waiting for the perfect combination of light and shadow and characters in the streets and alleys.
● Dusk in Aberdeen
He studied the style of the French master photographer Bresson. In street photography, he first finds the location, finds the background, and then waits, and the whole process can take several hours. When you get home, you're lucky you have a negative available; if you're unlucky, you'll get nothing.
In He Fan's photographs, the geometric shapes constructed by light and shadow are visible everywhere. The basic structure of the city is geometric, and He Fan also seeks such elements. Between geometries, the irregular is man. This can only be touched by breaking through the conventional irregularities, isn't it?
● sun rays
Throughout his life, he has been shooting with the same Fleur-de-K4a. Film was, of course, the only one that photographers of that era could use. Many photographers prefer the entire process of printing and enlarging negatives in darkrooms, and He Fan is no exception.
Before photoshop, photographers wanted to zoom in on details, deepen and lighten locally, and only by experimenting in the darkroom and adjusting different amounts of exposure could they get the effect they wanted in specific areas.
The same is true of Shadow. The distinctive geometric shape is not a gift from God, but after He Fan's additional processing in the dark room, it has a cut and formed light and shadow.
● forget me not
In He Fan's photography, these photos of dissolving the cityscape in the portrait are the effects he has achieved after practicing in the dark room for six years. From the audience's point of view, these effects are not surprising to our eyes, and the meaning is quite clear, the photographer is to tell the audience: please pay attention to these people in the city, do not forget them.
But the more the artistic effect that should be taken for granted, the more the artist has reached the natural realm after carefully studying the technique.
Speaking of his photography, He Fan said:
"As an artist, I just want to express myself. I do this to share my feelings with the audience. I need to be moved to make meaningful work. When a work resonates with the audience, money can't buy such an effect. My purpose is simple: I try not to waste the audience's time. ”
● different direction
Photography is his favorite. He wasn't taking pictures of anyone. Photography wasn't the profession he used to earn money, he was an actor or a director. But unlike photography, making a film is responsible to investors, and you have to consider the return of money at all times. To consider money, we must consider the market, and when the director shoots, it is inevitable to shrink his hands and feet.
He is also a figure in the Hong Kong film industry. In 1961, he joined Shaw. He started out as a field reporter, but later transformed into an actor. The Shaw brothers adapted four "Journey to the West" movies, and he all played Tang Monk, which became his most well-known role.
Usually, a person who loves to take pictures will naturally start shooting films, and the two have similarities.
● He Fan as a director
Ho Fan sees the relationship this way: "People tell me that my photography seems to have stories and dramas. That's why I later became a film director. Both use images to tell the story and express the emotions of the author. Photography and filmmaking are like sisters. One is stationary and the other is moving, which is the only difference. ”
Since 1972, He Fan has been working as a director. In terms of resume, we will find that the most popular of He Fan's film works are pornographic movies.
It is said that his pornographic films were also well made and were introduced to Japan.
Of course, he also made some other attempts. Some of his experimental short films have been exhibited at film festivals in Cannes, Berlin, and San Francisco. Among them, the most famous may be "Lost", still, the record is still the life of Hong Kong citizens.
● Market teams
Skimming through Ho Fan's works, we can see the Hong Kong of the past, those old times that will never come back. Of course, you and I did not have the opportunity to witness Hong Kong at that time, but through these photos, we seem to be able to feel what the life of an ordinary person was like in those days.
And to achieve this, it depends on the photographer's undiscovered scenery in the eyes of others, on his patient waiting, practice, polishing of technology, and on his uncompromising execution of aesthetic pursuits – there is no doubt that this is art.
Time does not know where it has gone, and people do not know where to go, only to express powerful art and let them live forever.
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