Black and White Photography at M+

Two Women (Gloucester Road) by Yau Leung

At Hong Kong's M+, there was a special exhibition featuring black and white photographs sponsored by the Hong Kong Jockey Club. Entitled Noir & Blanc: A Story of Photography, it seems like a good excuse to features pictures from famed photographer Fan Ho, known as the "Cartier-Bresson of the East". 

Ho's photos show cool composition

He was born in Shanghai in 1931 and at the age of 14 was given his first camera, a Kodak Brownie from his father. Within a year he won his first photography competition in 1949 and when he was 18 years old he bought a twin lens Rolleiflex.

A few years later Ho and his parents moved to Hong Kong, where he created numerous stunning images of the city. They include Smoky World, 1959, where he has a low angle shot looking up at people walking through Central Market. It looks very dramatic with a smoky atmosphere as people walk up and down the stairs, and there are gradient tones from white to black.

One his his most famous pictures is Approaching Shadow in 1954, where Ho composes a striking image of a lone woman stands against a wall looking down. In this photograph he manipulated the image by adding a diagonal shadow in the darkroom, apparently alluding to the fading of youth.

Another lovely photograph called Reflection, 1951, features the patterned grilles on windows and in one of them is a shadow of a person.

Liu captures everyday Chinese life

There are other photographers like Yau Leung's Two Women (Gloucester Road) taken in 1961. Two women shown from the back wearing form-fitting qipaos and heels as they walk under the covered walkways of shophouses in Wan Chai. 

For a bit of brevity, contemporary photographer Liu Heung-shing's China After Mao - Skating in Dalian, 1981, shows a man wearing drab work clothes but donning a pair of roller skates and skating past Mao Zedong, who stands valiantly in the wind.

It's a great contrast between the two, Mao serious and looking undeterred, while the man holds a bird-like pose, his left leg in the air, his arms out wide, showing that Western capitalism has made life more fun in China. 

The exhibition even has a self-portrait of landscape photographer Ansel Adams. Called Self-Portrait, Monument Valley, United States, taken in 1958, he is a silhouette, standing on a mountain with his camera on a tripod as there are lightning bolts in the sky over the mountains. 

Adams' wild self-portrait

What a lovely treat to see these photographs, particularly those of Fan Ho!

Noir & Blanc: A Story of Photography

On until July 1, 2024

M+