In 2017, the world lost a genius: Ren Hang. After years struggling with depression, which he actually documented online, the Chinese photographer committed suicide. But his lively work, depicting his friends and other models he approached online, remains eternal. The Maison Eurpéenne de la Photographie in Paris is paying him a sensitive tribute until May 26 under the title Love, Ren Hang, to remember the late photographer as well as to celebrate life, rebellion, beauty, and the youth’s new gaze.
Exploring the relationship between sexuality and identity, Ren Hang’s work is like none other and instantly recognizable. Considered by some as the Nobuyoshi Araki of our generation, the late photographer had a unique eye when it came to composition, colour, and even optical illusions. Repetition, patterns, surrealism; despite seeming staged, his work is the result of improvisation, instinct, and spontaneity.
His work, as unique as it is, also reflects something bigger than himself: the new way contemporary artists, especially photographers, in China, see the world. With it, a new wave of talents is emerging unstoppably, including the likes of Luo Yang, Lin Zhipeng, Alexandra Leese, or Zhang Kechun. Actually, as Luo Yang said to us in an interview, “We are in a time of information explosion, singularity and uniformed patterns no longer reflect the current situation in China, and it no longer suits the need as well.”
Ren Hang was one of the most prominent photographers of the new creative youth in China capturing the country’s current zeitgeist, where nudity and positive sexuality are not considered bad, embarrassing, or even sinful. It is nature, intimacy and honesty that prevail above all. He himself undressed his feelings on a personal diary he kept online, where he wrote many entries and poems, saying for example, “If life is a bottomless chasm, when I jump, the endless fall will also be a way of flying”.
The Maison Européenne de la Photographie exhibits some of these poems and texts – the lesser known works of Ren Hang – together with books (like Athens Love) and a hundred and fifty photographs chosen from different collections. The show Love, Ren Hang, is organized chromatically in a way: from his characteristic, bright red images (exhibited in the same room), to the darker snapshots taken at night, to others dominated by acid hues. Also, there is a more conceptual approach, like the one in the room devoted to her mother, or the last one, focusing on the body, eroticism, and their connection to nature.
His work, as unique as it is, also reflects something bigger than himself: the new way contemporary artists, especially photographers, in China, see the world. With it, a new wave of talents is emerging unstoppably, including the likes of Luo Yang, Lin Zhipeng, Alexandra Leese, or Zhang Kechun. Actually, as Luo Yang said to us in an interview, “We are in a time of information explosion, singularity and uniformed patterns no longer reflect the current situation in China, and it no longer suits the need as well.”
Ren Hang was one of the most prominent photographers of the new creative youth in China capturing the country’s current zeitgeist, where nudity and positive sexuality are not considered bad, embarrassing, or even sinful. It is nature, intimacy and honesty that prevail above all. He himself undressed his feelings on a personal diary he kept online, where he wrote many entries and poems, saying for example, “If life is a bottomless chasm, when I jump, the endless fall will also be a way of flying”.
The Maison Européenne de la Photographie exhibits some of these poems and texts – the lesser known works of Ren Hang – together with books (like Athens Love) and a hundred and fifty photographs chosen from different collections. The show Love, Ren Hang, is organized chromatically in a way: from his characteristic, bright red images (exhibited in the same room), to the darker snapshots taken at night, to others dominated by acid hues. Also, there is a more conceptual approach, like the one in the room devoted to her mother, or the last one, focusing on the body, eroticism, and their connection to nature.
The exhibition Love, Ren Hang will be on view until May 25 at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, 5/7 Rue de Fourcy, Paris.
Untitled © Courtesy of Estate of Ren Hang and OstLicht Gallery
Untitled, 2016 © Courtesy of Estate of Ren Hang and stieglitz19
Untitled China, 2015 © Courtesy of Estate of Ren Hang and OstLicht Gallery
Untitled China, 2015 © Courtesy of Estate of Ren Hang and OstLicht Gallery
Untitled China, 2015 © Courtesy of Estate of Ren Hang and OstLicht Gallery
Untitled © Courtesy of Estate of Ren Hang and OstLicht Gallery