If you’ve never heard of Fan Ho, you’re in for a treat.
Widely known for his street photographs of Hong Kong, Ho’s body of work has gone on to win close to 300 local and international awards. By applying different photography techniques, he was able to bring out the rhythm of Hong Kong’s urban life and showcase the interplay between the city and its people.
As a master of black and white photography, Ho would use the natural light and shadows to add drama to a scene and take advantage of the geometry found in his surroundings to draw attention to his subjects.
His ability to capture people’s emotions and gestures at the right moment and incorporate the necessary compositional elements to highlight those expressions is what makes him one of the most influential Asian photographers.
The early years
Born in Shanghai in 1931, Ho delved into photography at 14 years old and started taking images with a film camera from his father. Later on, he and his family moved to Hong Kong in the late 1940s when he had the chance to photograph Hong Kong as it transitioned into a metropolitan hub.
But rather than simply documenting the city’s buildings and monuments, Ho’s larger ambition was to reveal the resilience of the common Hong Kong people, which he called the “Hong Kong spirit”.
“I would take my camera with me, walking the backstreets and narrow lanes where there were ordinary folks, grassroots, and minority people,” said Ho in his interview with M+. “The ‘Hong Kong spirit’ that they represented is unforgettable. They constantly struggled to survive.”
Spotting the “decisive moment”
According to Henri Cartier-Bresson, the legendary photographer who developed the concept of the “decisive moment”, he described it as the exact instance when everything comes together in an image.
Within a fraction of a second, the photographer is able to recognise the significance of an event and organise the visual elements to rightfully express that event.
Like Cartier-Bresson, Ho was also a master of the “decisive moment”. His brilliance came from blending compositional elements and people’s expressions to produce a harmonious, compelling image.
Finding beauty that’s hidden in plain sight
What made Ho truly astounding was not just his application of the different photography techniques, but also his personal statement on the images he created. He believed that good photographs arise when there’s an intended story or emotion to convey.
“Good photographs are not taken with the camera,” said Ho. “They come from inside you—your eyes, your brain, and your heart. Not some cold piece of equipment.”
He was incredibly selective of people’s facial expressions, their postures and body movements, and the interaction between his subjects and the urban landscape. Ho captured them intending to convey the visual story he had in his mind; the photography techniques he used only served to tell his story in the best way possible.
For Ho, the magical moments were found along the streets, alleyways, commuting platforms, and ports of Hong Kong, where citizens—such as vendors and hawkers—usually frequent.
Whether it’s the sweet smile of a child, the stillness of a person enjoying the sea view, or the strength of a worker carrying his loaded baskets, Ho wanted to bring out the resilience of the Hong Kong people as they overcame hardships in their everyday life.
Becoming a master of black and white photography
It seems fitting that Ho decided on black and white as his medium of choice for his photography. While he dabbled in colour photography, black and white photography enabled him to express his ideas and the relation between Hong Kong and its people.
Because colour can be an overwhelming photographic element, by stripping it away, it brings more attention to the other compositional elements that make up an image.
“I like the colour black. It has a kind of power, one that is great and mysterious,” explained Ho. “Black and white offers a sense of detachment. It allows viewers to develop their responses and offers the space and depth to ponder my ideas.”
Playing with tones
The most immediate distinction between colour photography and black and white photography is the observance of tones, which refers to the brightness and darkness of an image from complete white to complete black.
Looking at Ho’s images, you can see that he was very conscious of the quality and direction of the light and the tones it produced within the scene. By playing around with the highlights and shadows, he was able to make his subjects stand out from the background.
“I consider photography as the art of light,” said Ho. “The light needs to fit my needs, so it’s important to wait for the right light.”
As the city of Hong Kong was a bustling environment, Ho would often shoot against the sun—meaning that the light source was behind his subjects—to create contrast and separate his subjects from the surroundings.
In the image above, the backlight does a few things:
It illuminates the key subjects—namely, the woman, the kid, and the worker—and draws immediate attention to them
It produces a rim light around the edges of the Hong Kong people that helps to distinguish them from the darker background
It creates a range of tones on the subjects, which gives a three-dimensional, realistic look to them
For scenarios with a clean background, Ho would be willing to shoot with the sun behind him. Though the outcome was a flatter image with low contrast, the clear sky and the negative space between the man and the boats in the above photograph were more than sufficient to highlight his subject. (Albeit Ho may have darkened the man during post-production to create even more contrast between him, the boats, and the sky.)
Pushing contrast to the extreme
To create a strong contrast using tones, there needs to be a clear difference between the various luminance values present within an image. Images with high contrast will have more values peaking at the ends of the luminance spectrum, whereas images with low contrast will have more luminance values that are evenly spread out across the spectrum.
In many of Ho’s photographs, you’ll observe that he usually preferred to create highly contrasted images as they tend to be more eye-catching than images with low contrast due to the obvious juxtaposition between light and dark.
At times, Ho would even go to the extremes of complete white and black such that certain details were removed from the photograph—what you’re left with were the essential visual elements that he wanted you to focus on.
Here, you can see that the sky and the background are mostly missing from the photograph. Instantly, your eyes are drawn to the tree branch against the white background, which then guides your eyes to the rower in the water.
Ho was also careful not to remove all the details from the background. He still preserved the shapes of the mountain ridges to establish the setting of the scene and add depth to an otherwise flat image.
Using geometry to create drama
The second distinction between colour photography and black and white photography is the observance of geometry, such as lines, shapes, and form.
Ho would use geometry to help emphasise a particular subject or add depth to a photograph. He often used tram tracks and stairs as leading lines to guide the viewers’ eyes into the image or make the photograph more dynamic.
By utilising the zigzag line along the stairs, it prompts viewers to take in the whole scene by starting at the bottom-left corner of the image and ending at the top-right corner of the frame. Not to mention, the zigzag line converges to the street lane at the top, which gives a three-dimensional look to the photograph.
Overall, the stairs unify the various subjects and activities happening within the scene and bring energy to the image because of the converging zigzag line.
Ho also sometimes used naturally occurring shapes to spotlight his subjects. In the image above, he used the shapes from the building to frame the man (i.e., frame within a frame) and draw more attention to him.
Editing and experimenting
The last point that I want to make about Ho is that he was not afraid to toy with new ideas during his post-production process. He would freely play around with the cropping, contrast, and composition as long as they served to tell his visual story.
Here, you can observe that the frame size is slightly unconventional. But it works because it helps to accentuate the leading lines from the tram tracks, and the composition beautifully spaces out the entire scene—creating a rhythm from the tram tracks to the officer to the car.
Inspiring people with photography
Ho was a huge believer that photography should be used to communicate your ideas. A camera is simply a tool—what separates a snapshot from a memorable photograph is the thought and emotions you put into capturing and editing the image.
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Click here to view the Fan Ho Photography Pinterest board.
About the author: Darius Tay is a photographer/visual storyteller who loves capturing meaningful moments and uses photography to tell stories and find beauty in everyday life. If you would like to leave a comment or engage him, feel free to email him at dariustay5@gmail.com.
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