Blindspot Gallery is holding a portrait photography group exhibition entitled “Closer,” exhibiting nine photographers’ artworks, including Nobuyoshi Araki, Moriyama Daido, Ren Hang, and Nadav Kander. Nadav, based in London now, is well known for photographing the Yangtze River in China. He is also good at portrait photography, capturing people’s character through unique lighting.
Time Magazine invited him to photograph Obama and Trump, the Person of the Year, in 2012 and 2016, respectively. He focuses on their expressions with distinctive lighting, Obama looks thoughtful, and Trump seems arrogant. Looking back at the images now, it appears to mark the end of a particular era for the US.
The Chinese photographer Liu Zheng worked as a photojournalist for the Worker’s Daily from 1991 to 1997. “The Chinese” series photograph from 1994 to 2000 is his iconic works. He has traveled across the country to photograph Farmers, Taoist Priest, Peking Opera Actors, Dancers, Transvestites, Wax Figures, and even dead bodies, capturing the Chinese’s miscellaneous life. People’s expressions, clothing, and body language in Liu Zheng’s photos are either absurd or ponderous, and it reminiscent of Diane Arbus’s artworks. For Liu Zheng, these photos that integrate history, reality, and personal views not only break the limitations of traditional photojournalism but also reflect on his self-identity of being a Chinese.
Chinese photographer Ren Hang committed suicide due to depression in 2017, which shocked the photography and art industries. Ren Hang is known for his erotic images and humorous compositions. For him, being naked is natural, and the nude pictures are precisely part of his friends’ daily life. In most cases, the photos’ absurd and funny postures are not conceived in advance, but his close friends’ real state. It is provocative, yet it somehow represents the subculture of the young Chinese.
Although the art market deeply favors this avant-garde and deviant culture, it is destined not to be recognized by society. His photos are controversial in China mainland and often prohibited from being displayed. Not only that, sometimes even the photographing process can be very frustrating, and he was arrested by the police many times, but these setbacks have not deterred him, nor have they prevented him from expressing his body freely. Yet, no one expected that he was suffering from depression and ended his short life at 30.
Photography artist Pixy Liao is famous for her long-term photographic project, Experimental Relationship (2007- present), which captured the unconventional self-portraits between the artist and her Japanese boyfriend Moro, who is fives years her junior.
In traditional cognition, men are pretty dominant in the relationship. Yet, their relationship is just the opposite. Moro, under her lens, is quite submissive. Sometimes, Pixy sitting in a chair hugs her naked boyfriend. Sometimes, Moro gently leans on her shoulders. The artist took inspiration from their relationship and staged the different daily scenes. It presents the intimacy between lovers and also questions the gender roles in a relationship.
然而想當年，林健恆也承認自己曾是港豬一名。2008年在觀塘職業訓練中心修讀攝影課程後，投身攝影工作至今，當過攝影助理，也曾為香港電視劇集《童話戀曲》及電影《點對點》拍攝劇照，因2013年香港電視發牌事件才關注社會事件，從港豬進化成社會運動的記錄者，2015年出版記錄雨傘運動的攝影集 《傘民》，2016年憑作品《馬屎埔抗爭》獲得「網絡公民大獎──最佳新聞照片獎」，2019年的反修例運動，他為社會聯合媒體（United Social Press）擔任攝影記者，在抗爭前線拍攝，有不少照片在網絡上廣為流傳。
每日一相 廣告現實對比虛偽
其實，這些年來，他一直有個「everyday photo」的拍攝計劃，只是早期照片偏向趣味性的畫面，甚少將社會議題帶入作品。經歷過雨傘運動及旺角騷亂的洗禮後，他越來越覺得《天與地》裏「this city is dying」的金句正慢慢應驗，心態上有所轉變，照片裏也多了隱喻。他善於利用廣告的影像與現實中的人物形成對比，例如露天時尚廣告牌與拾荒者、銀行理財廣告與行乞者、「健康睡眠」廣告字眼與在巴士上睡覺的乘客……有張服裝品牌的廣告相，照片中的人物笑得燦爛，與現實中不苟言笑的途人形成強烈對比，照片也成為攝影集的封面。「香港人是不會笑的，只有在虛假的廣告裏面才是笑的，這彷彿告訴我們，這個社會很多東西是虛偽的。」
