Meet Fan Ho

I am, once more, grateful for Sotheby’s photography auctions. A few days ago, I received an email about the upcoming show and sale, featuring the photographs of Fan Ho, the Chinese photographer who was elected Fellow of the Photographic Society of America (PSA) along with many other similar societies in many countries.

I viewed the photographs at the Sotheby’s auction catalog and was struck by two elements that are common to all his work. First, his photographs are very strongly tied to life. You will see busy streets, people having lunch on steps, or crossing the railroads. It is hard not to connect with those people you don’t know. The second thing common to all his work is his reverence toward the light, which he uses masterfully in every photograph I viewed. Some photographs of boats on the water are reminiscent of Turner’s paintings with light emanating from the work.

I present below some of his photographs for a quick view. If you like to see more, and even larger than my collection below, visit Sotheby’s auction page. After that, you may want to visit the Fan Ho website and learn more about him and his work. If you happen to be on Facebook, there is a Fan Ho page there as well. In any case, his work is well worth your attention, even be a source of inspiration in your own work. Not many photographs and photographers can show the light with the same gusto that Fan Ho.

Here is a small collection of his work, but plenty more are out there to find and explore. Fan Ho passed away in 2016, leaving a powerful collection of photographs that exude life and light.