Collection: Never Forget ── A Retrospective of Li Ruifeng's Publications

Li Rui-fen, Frank Lei (1962-2022) was a veteran Macao photographer, artist, art educator, and curator. To coincide with the launch of his latest photobook, Bing Bing Sang Yat has curated a book exhibition reviewing his publications.

As early as 2006, Frank had already documented the rapidly developing Macao in the exhibition "Urban Roaming – Exhibition of Photos by Yan Ao and Li Rui-fen." This was a book published by the Macao Museum of Art, featuring a collaborative creation through an artist-in-residence exchange program, inviting French photographer Yan Ao and Li Rui-fen to capture different scenes of Macao from their respective perspectives. An exhibition was later held, and the works were compiled into a book.

When the Green Island wooden house area faced demolition in 2009, Frank immediately invited creators from different mediums to engage in a dialogue with this unique space on Green Island. He curated the "Creative Project Exhibition Before Green Island Disappears" and published "Once Upon a Green Island," using his expertise to preserve a fleeting historical trace of Green Island.

During his tenure as the Artistic Director of Ox Warehouse, many publications were also produced under his leadership. Among them was the launch of the quarterly magazine "Ox Guts," which was one of the few cultural and art magazines in Macao at the time that focused on local and neighboring regions. Although he later ceased to be involved in actual editing and publishing, he laid a solid foundation for subsequent issues. In 2011, he initiated an image exhibition with Hengqin as its theme, which was subsequently held every three years. By 2017, the project spanned seven years, leading a group of Macao image creators to continuously document the rapid development, social landscape, and human life changes in Hengqin. This culminated in the publication of the epic "Dust Kicking Up Behind the Mountain — Hengqin Image Collection 2011~2014~2017," a collection of works from the three Hengqin image creation exhibitions.

After his passing in May 2022, The Lighthouse Publishing House compiled Frank's regular supplement column "Quality Chaos," which he had been writing for the Macao Daily News since his return to Macao from France in the 1990s, into three books: "Still Want More," "Treating with Culture," and "All Is Well." These books document his observations of the city, his deep love for art, and his vision for Macao's culture and art.

As a prolific photographer, he often travelled to different scenes, leaving behind a wealth of remarkable works. His latest documentary photobook on Macao, "A Different Perspective," includes many hitherto unpublished and highly representative works. Divided into eight sections, with 121 photographs, it presents common yet now forgotten urban landscapes of Macao from the 1990s, both before and after the handover of sovereignty.

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Biography

Born in Beijing, he moved to Macao at the age of ten. He majored in journalism and communications at university and later worked as a news reporter for the Macao Daily News. During this time, he developed a passion for French New Wave cinema and decided to pursue his dream in Paris. Cinema, photography, music, and literature were his lifelong loves. He held numerous solo and group photography exhibitions in France, Macao, and Hong Kong. In 1995, he founded the art group "Stone Commune." In 2001, "Stone Commune" moved into the Old Ladies' House (Casa Garden) and established the "Old Ladies' House Art Space," with Li Rui-fen serving as artistic director.