Excellent video! His note (and yours) on inspiration brought to mind a quote by Ernst Cassirer... "Art - It is the dynamic process of life itself...the continuous oscillation between opposite poles, between joy and grief, hope and fear, exultation and despair. To give aesthetic form to our passions is to transform them into a free and active state. In the work of the artist the power of passion itself has been made a formative power."
Fan Ho had some trademark elements in his photography. Shadows, smoke and backlighting combined with strong geometry in his composition. Great work. He used to crop a lot btw.
Fan Ho's work is very unique and different than the other photographers of his time.. He's my BIGGEST inspiration in street photography.. Sometimes before clicking the shutter, I ask myself what would Fan Ho have done if he was in this situation? I just NEVER get bored of his work!!! Fantastic work and research, as always 👏🏻
As a long time resident of Hồng Kong Fan Ho’s work has always stood out. He captured an era in HK’s history that I wish I could have been privy to. (this might be a repeat comment as my first seems to have disappeared)
I am an aspiring street photography enthusiast. Simply this is one of my favourite channel not only to gain inspiration, but to learn the craft in a meditative way. Thank you for these non-clickbaity inspiring videos.
Fan Ho is one of my favourites. We are all definitely a product of our time. Sometimes I wonder what a different person I'd be if I were born only 5 years earlier or 5 years later because of how quickly pop culture changes and how one person's past is another person's present and how much that can influence style. We see Fan Ho's work (and the work of other street photographers decades ago) and feel nostalgia, when that was just everyday life for them. Not sure where I was going with this point lol, but for some reason you bringing up Justin Bieber just made me suddenly very reflective of pop culture and where inspiration comes from.
I totally get it you comment makes me think how much I also feel nostalgic looking at street photos from let’s say 40/50+ years ago because there was this beauty, this visual style of certain buildings, soda fountains, people always in suits it hits different than now don’t know but for some reason I also question myself would I be a different person if I was born 20/30 etc years ago. Interesting thinking.
One of my absolute favorite photographers and biggest inspirations ever! Thanks for the video and giving us an insight into his life. And of course: Yes yes yes to „Everything is connected“!
I just discovered this channel and I really appreciate what you're doing here. There's too little out there on the art of photography (as opposed to purely technical stuff or reviews of the gear). I'm pretty well versed in the world of artistic photography, but I have to admit that I'm not that familiar with the work of Fan Ho, a photographer who I'm realizing is is really as great as any of the better known names in the medium. I really love the quality of light in the work, which is something that I try to put fourth in my own photography. You said something about inevitable "haters" in the video, that are likely to criticize Ho's later work as straying too far from straight photography. I look at photography though as a really wide open thing and I try to look at the work and not focus too much on waht gear or process was used. I took some photo classes decades ago in college and one of the tools that we used was a photo copier, which is essentially and kind of camera... so it's all photography to me. As far as Ho using a combination of film and digital media to make those late period collages, I don't see that as really all that significant as, I've seen plenty of work that looks very similar done in the darkroom. The digital tech certainly does make this kind of work easier, but I don't believe that the relative level of difficulty to create something should be any kind of arbiter of it's worth. As long as the artist gets what they want across, they have succeeded no matter waht technique or media that they've employed to create it. I actually liked these photo college pieces a lot. I need to check my local library and find some books of this Fan Ho guy's work... Very inspirational!
been studying the technical side of photography for like 1 year, now that i'm getting to art, and your channel has been helping me so much! thank you for your videos
Fan Ho was one of my earliest influences. He is a master of light. I love your channel and the perspective that you bring. I find your videos educational and inspiring. For me, the continuing theme is be your authentic self. You remind me to slow down and really compose a shot. Shoot what you love and at the end of the day, your soul will be full. BEST photography channel on RU-vid
Thank you. Excellent video on Fan, but more importantly thank you for inspiring me. I have found that in my struggle with depression, photography serves as a safe haven that allows me to detach. I love taking photos of light and shadow interacting in interesting ways, shapes, and patterns and when I'm doing that, everything else tunes out. I've been having a really rough week and haven't been able to get myself to do much of anything, but this little video somehow just lifted me up, at least a little.
I love bridging the gap between digital and analog. Artists have an invitation to make it work. And if successful, as Fan Ho was, we advance the form without abandoning anything. It's all gain, no loss. The fidelity of craft is to the result just as much as the means to which we achieve it. Sour Patch for life.
I Think I Just Found My New Inspiration In The Film Photography World His Work Is Unreal...The Tonality In His Photos Bring Everything Together The Way The Light Blooms In His Shots Adds This Atmosphere That I'm Striving For In My B&W Work...
Fan Ho was a natural photo talent who lived and worked in earlier Hong Kong. HK was also diverse, lively and such a photo rich environment. Those of us who traveled to modern China will note HK was far less congested and more amenable to contemplative art. The people there are lively, work hard and are so expressive. Fan Ho was able to blend into the environment and capture moments & places in HK. Taking photos in such a growing, changing and pulsing place like Hong Kong could not give a curious person a better chance to record others. His work just swirls in my imagination. Well done.
His work was so unique, the ultimate eye of light and shadow (what photography is all about)...my greatest inspiration in photography. Thank you for this video 👍.
Always love your videos, Tatiana. I totally relate to the message in this one. I never want to waste anyone's time. (and you never do) I will often put your videos on and just let them play, one after the other. Hope you're doing well.
Hello, Jose from Puerto Rico. This is a wonderful channel. Fan Ho and Saul Leiter are right up there with my favorites. Hope to see a documentary on Jay Maisel done by you.
Saw this posted at Reddit and had to jump over here to watch. Glad to see you've covered him, he's definitely one of my favs, and I think you did an awesome job representing his work in the video. 🙂
I love your channel. I never cared enough to find and study the better photogs of yester-years because I never knew where to begin. Thank you for teaching me about these artists. They make me feel happy to be a photographer again. There was a period in my love of photography that I became jaded. It was because I was doing farm work from sun up to sun down as an indentured slave during covid and my gear was in storage. I took a lot of beautiful photos on my wee iPhone 7s but still longed for the free time to use my gear. When I was able to go out with my real camera, I had alot of bad feelings within me, so much so that I couldn't focus on creativity. This latent period was fruitless and now I'm back taking photos with ethusiam and purpose but unfortunately my two favorite lenses , an 85 for street and 135 for portraits became infested with fungus. The 135 got it the worst. But I don't feel as bad as I should. It's an opportunity for me to use my manual focus 50, 20-35 zoom that is terrible, and my weird Russian Helios. Seeing the works of these photographers gives me new ideas and I'm very happy to see their work. I see alot of their work in my own but i keep seeing things I'm learning from.
Don Mc’Cullum , Fan Ho and Peter Lindberg are my top favourites. This shot 0:37 alone is just stunning and I’m in awe every time I see it. Great Video ✌🏾
A portion of Fan Ho work seems to be done by laying out the basic composition and then uses patience to wait and standby to allow characters to move into the composition and complete the narrative.
Wasn't really aware of him until I watched your video. I think I heard his name before, but have never seen a picture he made. Thank you for introducing him to me.
T, very inspirational video. You’ve touched upon some of my passionate inspirations: photography(of course), Fan Ho ( I have the great fortune of meeting him about 10 years ago-very humble man), Mahler(akin to reading Herman Hess), Li Po(the great mystical poet). Thank you for sharing the esoteric & fueling the fire for our emotional caldron. ✌🏼
That's fantastic Dennis if you can recommend me some Chinese poets I would love read their work and get more in touch with Chinese poetry (here or on IG @tffhopper). Also yes when I watched an interview with Fan Ho he really seemed such a humble person and genuine it was incredible!
@@TatianaHopper my go to escape from life’s bitter arrows is Anthology of Chinese Literature by Cyril Birch. It’s in two volumes, but I’m stuck in volume 1. The translation is exquisite. Flows lyrically & reads effortlessly. Here’s where I discovered Li Po & his most famous poem is included (4 poems on wine-they’re deliriously exquisite). It came out in 1965 & it’s still available on Amazon. Or you can scoured your local used books shops. Enjoy.
06:04. He seems to place shadow almost as another living entity in the photograph. But if you take the shadow away, his images often remind me of the shadow-less woodblock from Japan or indeed similar-ish Chinese painting. Anyway, BRAVO!, on your latest short. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
I'm very happy RU-vid actually made a good channel suggestion for once, with your channel. It's great, smart, funny, insightful and very entertaining. Thank you
Thx. Now I'm going to try to get that single coated voightlander lens for that I've been looking at, and work at improving my black and white stuff. Fan Ho. Ok. "People Have The Power". I think Patty Smith collaborated with her Husband Fred Smith on that song. Pretty sure that Fred Smith was a Jazz musician in NYC. He was the original guitarist of the MC5 rock band also. I love Patty Smith. I really enjoy your shows. I'm an amature photographer for sure. I found that I liked the delicate detail in how Fan Ho exposed his highlights in his compositions. It shows me that I need to slow down and look for better locations to frame my people shots. I pretty much require people in my shots. Thx again.
Always been a massive fan of.. Fan. So nice to learn more about the person and his history. Super interesting stuff, and great words from yourself too!
Thanks for this informative video along with all of the others you have produced. Great way to learn about the many inspirational photographers. Hard to imagine why anyone would give this a thumbs down. Keep up the good work.
the work of Fan Ho, ( who I only heard about bc of you and this video), is exquisite. as usual, you and the subjects you choose, help to move and inspire me. thank you
Love the way Fan Ho used light and shadow. A true master. I also think you bring up an interesting point about the adoption of modern techniques. In the past photographers had to be inventors, chemists, carpenters etc just to get an image. I find it truly silly to say that any technology is forbidden in the pursuit of art, Artists must be master manipulators whether that is in storytelling or the darkroom or even in choosing what to capture. It should not be forgotten that at the end of his life Ansel Adams said that if he had to start over he would do so with "electronic photography".
Applause to that Edward, I agree if it makes sense and you like working with technology then do it. Its all about improving yourself and your work not the other way around.
@@reinhold61Well, most be people clueless about what tools they should use. Is knowing your camera settings boring ? U have no how to use it ? Or the software ?
Hi Tatiana, I am a new subscriber to your channel that I find superb. Not only the content is excellent, but I really enjoy all the resources you put together to bring us very good videos. By the way I wonder where you find the beautiful classic and old documentary shootings you use in many of your YoutTube pieces.
-When we see the world, we never see just a bunch of amorphous colors and shapes, but we see it as organzied in a certain way, and that organization is a projection of our inner world. David Hume was right when he talks about the mind's "propensity to spread itself on external objects." A photographer's job is never to capture the amorphous colors and shapes from the objective point of view, because there's no such point of view. Instead, his job is to capture his inner world that is projected onto the nihilistic world of amorphous colors and shapes. Master Ho was absolutely right that only through expanding the inner world, through music, poetry and other works of art, one can create art instead mere technically perfect images. When the ancient Chinese poet Li bai was looking at the moon one night more than a thousand years ago, what he saw was nostalgia, and his poem resonated with generations to come. And when you look like Ho Fan's work, you can really feel the poetic sensitivity exuding from his photographs. I've been binge watching your videos, they are deeply thoughtful and beautifully presented. The only comment about this particular video is that the intro of a Japanese street scene is a little distracting. The atrocities committed by the imperial Japan in other parts of Asia during WWII has not been as well publicised as that by the Nazi Germany. The time when Ho Fan was a young man coincided with the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong and the better parts of China. So the images of Japan street scene during the imperial era as an introduction of a Hong Kong photographer is not really congruent to the subject matter.
Wow. Really fantastic work. Your storytelling touched on the unity of all art, the simplicity and complexity of making images, and the importance of awareness. I really enjoyed the tone of you video as well for it is able to so fluidly, and cohesively, discuss topics that are both central and vast. Love this content and I find inspiration in it. The "Fools" approve homie. Thank you for making work of this caliber and of this honesty.
Really enjoyed this. I don’t shoot Street but have always been in awe of Fan Ho’s work. Currently binge watching your videos having just come across it following watching a video from Grainydays. Really enjoying the content 👍
the only right and wrong is have the photo in focus, don't have the photo be blurry. Everything else is what you want it to be. This guy had a nice style. Every photo is a moment in time and a story.
Been a big fan of your videos and now a subscriber to your channel. LOVE many of your videos. This one on Fan Ho is no exception. Your sharing and examining of his work was inspirational. Bravo Tatiana, Bravo!! One thing though.. and perhaps because I too am Chinese... in your Intro clip... that was Japan, with Japanese people. For me, personally, that just doesn't work on many different levels. Perhaps ask yourself this question. If this video was "The Narrative Photography of Henri Cartier-Bresson", would you have used that same intro clip? I'd assume the answer would be no. Anyways, I think you get my point. That said, I'll continue to support your channel with great interests and look forward to more of your wonderful work. Peace.
Learning so much from your videos! I really like the new direction of your work also, I too want to capture those dreamy, atmospheric qualities in my future photographs and artwork. Thank you for creating, sharing and inspiring! especially in these days when motivation is low :) Love from Ireland!
I wonder what modern digital cameras are Fan Ho's favorites? I wonder what settings he prefers, and how he has adapted his style to digital? Thanks for the great show. You said in another show; never photograph something you don't feel passionate about. I like that. That statement sums up what I'm trying to do; with my street photography. Sometimes it's fun, and sometimes it's difficult/ heartbreaking emotionally to stay with it, and get a good shot. I'm a amateur. It makes me marvel at some photographers that manage to get pictures, that really grab my emotions. When I show someone my pictures; thats what I look for; thier reactions. Then I try to relate with them or guess what struck thier emotions. Did we see the same things? Andy Warhol said: make lots of art. While people are trying to decide if it's any good or not make more art.
I'm a long time fan... not trying to be punny, oorr am I. lol But really, his work is my favorite. It doesn't matter how often I look at the same image, it always blows my mind. Also, I love your ending message. You rock. :-D
I'm also a big fan of Fan Ho. It's not only about the composition and style; it's far more than that. I'm a rookie. Hence, it's difficult for me to explain. But all I can say is... This guy knows art. His power of imagination is limitless. He truly knows what goes with what. I was a confused about editing my pictures... I mean, manipulating the scene. But after looking at his works, I've realized that manipulation is also an art. And sometimes, visualizing the manipulation is lot more critical that taking a picture. Maybe I couldn't explain it correctly. But my point is... Manipulate or not, art is art. And it requires a lot creativity and power of imagination. Someone might know everything about Photoshop or other software. But that doesn't mean that he/she can Create a great photo. Anyway, maybe I should stop now. LoL! Fantastic video. Great job done 👌
Beside many of us don't have his talent, but it can help to get our photography improved if we put ourselves in his place, back then. It was to aim to win salon competitions that he won over 280 awards and some of the images were tailored for the few judges' eyes only. Trying to win such competitions was a popular activity back then, just as dreaming about being an Instagram influencer today. There was something else Fan Ho said about why he preferred B&W, which was to give the viewers a different look of their usual world in color. That isn't about composition but psychological warfare. Such different or shock approach is repeatedly used in creating many outstanding images such as Yousuf Karsh's portrait of Winston Churchill, Napalm girl, etc. Also, one YT channel host was saying that Fan Ho wasn't a true Hong Kong native but a transient photographer. Maybe that's why many of us are complaining about there isn't many interesting things to shoot in our own town or city.
Is not about shooting , is about telling a story . Not just taking a shot , and that's it. That be kinda boring ... But telling a story? Okay, now a whole different thing
Perhaps we can summarise: This is painting stories with light ... I suggest Mahler's fifth symphony for printing in the dark. Great video and clever analysis. Thank you for your work!
Very cool video. Thanks for exposing (no pun intended) his work to me. I love it. Oh, btw, I'm coming to weld your chair so that it can't move anymore 😁
Fan Ho captured that elusive “mood” in his photographs, and his use of space and isolation of subjects was ingenious. In our hurried world these days that’s difficult to do in normal circumstances, but ironically during the pandemic it is easier to capture (provided the Government gives us the freedom to get out from time to time, which at the moment it doesn’t!).
That was another thing one YT host was saying. Fan Ho came from a well off family and was able to take most of the day off to travel around HK to take photos. Note that Hong Kong was a poor city back then and the population density was around 8 people per square inch (a family or two generations living in a small room). Even the bathtub was a luxury item for many.
@@bfs5113 That’s interesting. I didn’t spot that, other than that his father gave him a Rollei which of course must have been expensive for the time. Similarly, HCB also came from a wealthy industrial family, but I believe that in his case, they didn’t give him much if any support, which makes his achievements all the more remarkable. In both cases, the eye doesn’t lie and their work is an inspiration, even though we will never come close to emulating it!
@@martin701 I'm not surprised that you didn't spot it, since that video wasn't in English and I sensed a bit of jealousy from the tone of the host. I think the closest of the opposite of them was probably Vivian Maier. Her room while working as a nanny could hardly used as a wet darkroom and her only photo ops around town was during her days off. The funny thing about the works from HCB and Fan Ho is that they were almost polar opposites in their approaches and yet both remarkable & retired from photography. While HCB had been influenced a lot of photographers with his decisive moments & minimum/no cropping, but many photographers today discovered there is another approach, the Fan Ho's way--sometime staged, cropped and a lot of wet darkroom processing. Since I'm not even close to these masters, hence GAS and the joy of photography will do.
@@bfs5113 Just read the rest of your post. Vivian Maier was extraordinary and if it wasn’t for her, we would have lost a huge amount of urban American history. I think I’m right in saying (correct me if I’m wrong) that much of her work was discovered some time after her death. I think HCB’s main influence came initially from studying the renaissance artists and then mingling with the surrealist movement early in his life. His spontaneity came from the latter as well as his disregard for “rules”. He was keen on geometry in his photographs as well. I have tried, but could never put my finger on what made his photographs so brilliant, they simply are! With Fan Ho, his photographs have a magic in my view. As I’ve said in my initial comment, they capture a “mood” which is also difficult to define and it’s not just the subject matter. I think his use of shadow and high contrast go a long way to explaining it, and again he was a master of composition. Both great photographers in their own way, but as you rightly say, different
