The Living Theater

Hong Kong master photographer Fan Ho was born in Shanghai in 1931. On his 14th birthday, he was given a Rolleiflex dual-lens camera by his father, and he became indissoluble with photography. At the age of 18, Fan Ho and his family moved to Hong Kong to continue pursuing his dream of photography. He is good at using light and shadow, using geometric lines to outline the various forms of the common people in Hong Kong. His camera shuttles between the ordinary life, explores the old style, the haze and rain of the past, and witnesses the glorious era of Hong Kong.

The classic trilogy published by Fan Ho through the American publishing house Modernbook during his lifetime are "Reminiscences of Hong Kong" (Hong Kong Yesterday, 2006), "The Living Theater" (The Living Theater, 2009) and "Hong Kong ‧ Past Feelings" (A Hong Kong Memoir, 2014). The works included in the three photobooks are different and there is no duplication.

This book "The Stage of Life" is the second part of the trilogy, from freehand brushwork to realism. A portrait in a scene, to care for the city he loves so much. Different from the strong sense of drama in the first part, Fan Ho used "The Stage of Life" to portray the power of small people to "live" and "live", further outlining the spirit of Hong Kong.

Ho Fan is known as the "Grandmaster of a Generation" in the photography industry, and is even known as the "Oriental Bresson". Born in Shanghai in 1931, moved to Hong Kong in 1949. Fan Ho's prolific period of photographic work was concentrated from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. During this period, his black-and-white photography was already in a leading position in Hong Kong, and his photographic techniques were even more pioneering at that time. He has won nearly 300 regional and international awards by participating in competitions, and is an honorary member of many national photographic societies, including the Royal Photographic Society and the Royal Society of Arts.