“The way of cropping photos can be the signature of a photographer. It shows how he sees layouts, tones, lines and forms. It recomposes and recreates an image.”
—Fan HoChinese photographer Fan Ho’s (1931-2016) experimentations with camera angles and cropping as well as his dramatic use of light and shadow resulted in highly stylised and emotionally charged compositions as exemplified here in Steps. First, we are confronted with a close-up view of steps – distilled into geometric lines and shapes – that nearly fill the entire frame. Then, our eyes lead up to the top of the steps where we see a line of people reduced to ghostly silhouettes with an illuminated parasol as the source of light, lending the scene with an air of mystery. ‘Steps has a ratio of 20:7. It is cropped from a square-shaped photograph and only one third is left’, Fan Ho explains. ‘It exaggerates the steps and the three-dimensional depth, creating an upward looking impression.’ For the artist, cropping played an integral role in his image-making process as it enabled him ‘to take out unnecessary elements, to tidy up the visuals and strengthen the themes.’ Appearing at auction for the first time, Steps is an exceptional example of Fan Ho’s compositional mastery and experimental vision.
Fan Ho is celebrated for his remarkable black-and-white photographs of everyday life in Hong Kong taken in the 1950s and 60s. In capturing chance moments hidden within the urban chaos, he created lyrical images that transport the viewer to another place and time. During his 50-year career as a photographer and filmmaker, Fan Ho received nearly 300 awards and titles, both locally and internationally, including the1961 Salon Honour in Cagliari, Italy, for Steps. His work is held in the following museums: the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Hong Kong Heritage Museum and M+ in Hong Kong.
