[Great Photographers] Learn from Fan Ho: Master of Light (Henri Cartier-Bresson of the East)

[@kaitlinroth7555]

Hong Kong pride ❤️ Fan Ho is such a treasure, love this video. As an ABC in the U.S, this makes me even more proud of my roots!

[@BelindaJiao]

Kaitlin, indeed good work is nice to read always but really there aren that many globally known pics of Hong Kong!

[@Namo_4242]

Great video. Fan ho is one of the favorite photographers. Love his work.

[@BelindaJiao]

Dominik, thank you! Fan Ho's a legend :)

[@KebsCayabyab]

Very insightful Belinda! I love that you read and translated the Cantonese words for more context! Continue this series :D

[@BelindaJiao]

hey Kebs!! cheers, perks of speaking Canto haha. Surely, are there photographers your particularly interested in?

[@KebsCayabyab]

@@BelindaJiao Saul Leiter, Gordon Parks, Joel Meyerowitz are the first one that comes to mind

[@TarotTrismagistus]

Agreed!

[@ruffprophetproductions]

You made some great points, Belinda!! I especially resonated with the fact of revisiting old negatives and work and making new images. Also that other point of NOT blindly following the people who’s work you admire. That’s just copying and it’s inauthentic

[@BelindaJiao]

hey Ruff, cheers! re-editing old photos was one of the things people started remembering since the pandemic but really still deserves our attention otherwise. Copying is easy but totally misses the fun! :)

[@barrymedlin6587]

Brilliant Belinda, 5-Stars!! Loved the way you put this together and talked about your growing up in Hong Kong and relating to his work! Bloopers were entertaining as well🤣. Looking forward to reading the blog!!

[@BelindaJiao]

Glad you enjoyed it Barry! Fan Ho's knowledge in literature is so rich that I tried so hard to explain the lines precisely. Blog post is already up! :) :)

[@bsmukler]

Thank you for putting this video together and sharing it! I think it is unique in the way in which you gave us an insight into Fan Ho's mindset, or perspective, both in terms of where he grew up within Hong Kong and how he chose his subjects and locations. We can easily see ourselves finding a photographically rich location, like the foot of that staircase, and revisiting it over and over again based on the time of day and on the character and angle of sunlight. Regarding the age-old debate about setting up photos versus only photographing what naturally occurs, I think that photography as art implies that the choices the individual photographer makes are themselves part of the story and character of their art (just as you have described and shown so well here). To me, the only "moral" imperative is that actual reportage or documentary photography should always and only include the actual scene, with any variations clearly disclosed and explained. Regarding the aspect ratio and cropping discussions, I wonder how that would change if (when?) our devices were able to capture every portion of our own field of view coupled with the ability to zoom into or compress or isolate subjects afterward, with no limitation on image quality or distortion. In that case, every finished print or photo would represent the artist's personal vision or interpretation of what they saw at the time, or of what they imagined or were attempting to convey.

[@BelindaJiao]

hey Ben, cheers, glad you enjoyed the discussions presented in the video! Interesting thought, on the possibility of not needing to compromise (significantly) on resolution upon cropping. Perhaps, this would be possible at this rate our technology evolves! I guess it pretty much forms part of the artist's style. Technical factors doesn't quite matter as much. Do you crop your images by large measures? Street photography is a rather ambiguous genre of photography which doesn't sit squarely in documentary/ reportage, yet neither in surrealist genres - indeed, much room is left for the photographer to decide!

[@bsmukler]

Hi Belinda. I try to do only minimal cropping (unless it was a grab shot with the subject a small part of the frame) other than to change aspect ratios. I like the idea of looking carefully around the entire frame before taking the photograph so that I consciously select what is or is not within the frame. Yes, “pure” street photography (if there is such a thing) would, I think, dictate not altering the scene although as you pointed out some photographers ask their subjects to move to a different spot or pose, which I think is more in line with portraiture rather than street photography. I’m really enjoying your series overall. Thank you for doing it!

[@TarotTrismagistus]

Love this. Please do more of these.

[@BelindaJiao]

hey Melissa, amazing! Any artists in mind u'd like me to cover? :)

[@TarotTrismagistus]

@@BelindaJiao Ansel Adams? Honestly, there’s a lot I don’t know about, so whichever you like I’d be thrilled to learn about! Sorry just saw the reply.

[@BelindaJiao]

@@TarotTrismagistus jinx man, the next vid is going to be about him, well, his book ;)

[@TarotTrismagistus]

@@BelindaJiao Aw ya! Thank you! Oh I’d love to see some Steve Mcurry as well if you can! Thank you!

[@aliu927]

One of my many favorite photographers

[@BelindaJiao]

Andy, yes I had a feeling that a lot of you would connect with his style :) how did you learn about him?

[@aliu927]

@@BelindaJiao kinda of a long story but to summarize, I had my own style when I started, stopped photography, year later started copying trendy ig pics, lost sight, bought a fuji film, started to do some digging and soul searching. Fan Ho was the first photography that reminded me of what photography used to be for me when I first started and later journey'd with other photographers whovaddedvmore to my inspiration.

[@BelindaJiao]

oh I relate with the ig part. IG probably started with good intentions of encouraging people to create embracing the idea of minimalism (in gear, subject matter, editing etc) though the hype around it has led it to an extreme. What other photographers do you resonate most with?

[@aliu927]

@@BelindaJiao Joel Meyerowitz, William Eggleston, Fred Herzog, Saul Leiter, Vivian Maier, and Julius Shulman

[@BelindaJiao]

you like quite a wide variety of styles hahaha noted, coming up with another of this series :)

[@BrisbaneChannel]

Thanks for that. Fan Ho is one of my faves.

[@BelindaJiao]

cheers Adam! unbelievable what he could do with his camera back then :)

[@barrymedlin6587]

Timing couldn’t be more perfect Belinda! I recently discovered Fan Ho and was going to ask you about him!! Can’t wait!

[@BelindaJiao]

amazing Barry! how did you find out about him? seems like you are researching quite a lot lately :)

[@barrymedlin6587]

@@BelindaJiao actually saw a video of his work on KZbin and loved it! I enjoy finding new artists and thinking outside the norm😀

[@BelindaJiao]

his work is most certainly stunning :) this is a great attitude, keep going !!

[@ArminHirmer]

well done

[@BelindaJiao]

cheers Armin, is Fan Ho's work of a similar style as yours?

[@ArminHirmer]

I wish, still working on my style

[@BelindaJiao]

good luck! you will find it before you know it :)

[@ArminHirmer]

@@BelindaJiao thank youuuuuu

[@linusloth4145]

8:24 Belinda, please expand on the cultural background of Fan Ho's work. I have not seen a youtube video about Fan Ho speaking to it.

[@BelindaJiao]

hey Linus, glad that you are interested! The lines in Chinese literature typically has historic roots which date back to dynasties, so in quoting a particular line, Fan Ho expresses that this scene he was seeing reminds him of a historic event described in the line. This adds to the cultural richness of his work. Specifically, the four words 日暮途遠 was quoted from a writer in the Northern and Southern dynasties, who was grieving the loss of his home country as it was conquered by invaders, and the sorrow in relation to having to spending his later years in a foreign country to which he had fled to survive. The meaning Fan Ho was conveying does not correspond squarely to the actual course of events chronicled in the historic text, or so I believe, but it has to do, more so, with the mood/ ambiance engendered by the line. This atmosphere was deemed to fit well with what Fan Ho perceived from the scene he saw, and thus he titled this shot as such. Hope this makes sense? haha :)

[@linusloth4145]

@@BelindaJiao Yes, thank you :)

[@wongjefx980]

Never heard of this photographer... seen pics from Henri Bresson, Robert Frank and Vivian Maier, Daidō Moriyama and Robert Doisneau... but fanastic to see pics here, this is great.. Hong Kong is there with NYC, Paris and Tokyo for interesting places for street pics.

[@BelindaJiao]

hey Jef, Hong Kong is surely a street photography heaven, though in quite a distinct way compared to european/ american cities. Do you think his stuff resembles that of Henri? may refer to him of HCB of Hong Kong (some also regard Fan Ho as Ansel Adams of Hong Kong)

[@dominiquenotari8244]

thanks for sharing

[@BelindaJiao]

cheers Dominique!

[@PhotoMeLarry]

This was great!

[@BelindaJiao]

hey thank you, glad you enjoyed! :)

[@terrywbreedlove]

I have one of his books and I look through it all the time. Just amazing for work.

[@BelindaJiao]

which one? :) :) lucky you, have always wanted to get hold of a copy but still haven't

[@terrywbreedlove]

@@BelindaJiao I have Fan Ho Hong Kong Yesterday which I just noticed is now out of print.

[@BelindaJiao]

wow amazing book. His stuff is always highly in demand, though a new series is coming i believe!

[@olympus2OM]

Well done.

[@nelsonm.5044]

Fan Ho is a very underrated photographer, his body of work is a masterpiece but for reasons unknown to me he is not well known as Cartier-Bresson or Salgado. Your video is quite interesting, I learned quite a few thing today watching it.

[@BelindaJiao]

Hey Nelson, glad you found it interesting! Think the fact that he was working in an Asian city meant his work would look very different from what’s been shot around that period

[@Dan-jg7zl]

No he isn't. He has received over 200 awards. How is he underrated?

[@olympus2OM]

Thank you for the master.

[@BelindaJiao]

haha indeed his work is a joy to read!

[@clipdump]

This was really informative. I found out about Fan Ho from Sean Tucker and I wanted to look a bit deeper. Thanks for making this video!

[@BelindaJiao]

hey cheers glad you enjoyed, I made this from the perspective of someone from Hong Kong but do explore on your own terms! think his new book came out last year

[@clipdump]

@@BelindaJiao for sure! I am coming from an abstract painting perspective, and now as I'm beginning to explore photography a bit more I think his work really appeals to me

[@BelindaJiao]

oh perfect Saul Leiter will be interesting - he is a photographer professionally but also a long-time painter. Fascinating how his work crosses over the two disciplines - there's a video of him in this series :)

[@clipdump]

@@BelindaJiao awesome! I will check it out!!

[@olympus2OM]

Inspiring.

[@olympus2OM]

Congrats.

[@cameronbell843]

Fan ho is like the only photographer I know lol this is going to be good

[@BelindaJiao]

really!! so glad to hear, seems like a really good choice to start this series with him :) how did you come across his work?

[@cameronbell843]

@@BelindaJiao as you know I'm crazy about black and white haha, I came across fan ho from one of Sean Tucker's videos. not sure if you're familiar with him but his videos are quite motivational

[@BelindaJiao]

oh totally! Yes I watch Sean's vids and am a fan. Right right i do see some similarities in both Sean and Fan's approach to street photos

[@cameronbell843]

@@BelindaJiao Sean's videos are motivational, but his jumpers aren't as good as yours, nice roll neck haha

[@BelindaJiao]

HAHA maybe i should up my fashion game some more lol. There is more weird stuff in my wardrobe i believe 🤣

[@olympus2OM]

Hong Kong girl.

[@scarlettchen8069]

Did a lot of homework

[@BelindaJiao]

yes it did take quite a bit of research to present accurately Fan Ho's life!