Radical, vulgar, humorous, poetic, erotic, provocative and sexual are words that come that describe Ren Hang’s work. He captures naked bodies collapsing into beautiful, twisted, sometimes hairy, and occasionally explicit human sculptures.
“ Hang was born in Jilin, China, in 1987 and began taking pictures in 2008. He was drawn to photography while studying marketing; his college work didn’t interest him but he realized taking pictures did. Hang once said he simply “shot what he saw,” which began with his roommate’s naked body. Nudity continued to be a source of inspiration for Hang, whose visionary, artfully-constructed scenes bled the surreal with the provocative.
His work, though celebrated across the world, was a subject of controversy in his homeland. Outdoor nudity and pornographic images have been banned in the People’s Republic of China since 1949 and Hang was arrested several times, though he was unsure “what the legal reason was.” Despite this, Hang has always maintained that his work was not “taboo” or seeking to “push boundaries,” adding: “I just do what I do.” Hang was championed by Ai Weiwei, who he also collaborated with, and was held up as a leading light of Chinese contemporary photography.
Hang suffered from cyclical depression, something he documented through his poetry, under the title My Depression . He published seven photo books included Ren Hang, Nude, Republic and Son And Bitch before Taschen’s recent retrospective, edited by Dian Hanson. Hang has been exhibited around the world and received the Outset/ Unseen Exhibition Fund in 2016. Hang was living in Beijing at the time of his death.” – Alexandra Genova, Controversial Chinese Photographer Ren Hang Dies at 49, Time Lightbox
RIP Ren Hang
