Fact, Fiction, or Fake…
I have always loved the work of Fan Ho. Heralded as China’s premier street photographer, he was born in Shanghai in 1931 and emigrated to Hong Kong in 1949. Largely self-taught, his photos display a fascination with urban life, explored alleys, slums, markets and streets. Much of his work consists of candid photographs of the street vendors and children only a few years younger than himself.
Fan Ho also had an accomplished film career as a director and actor. Looking at his works, it’s easy to see why.
Life in a Slum, Fan Ho, 1966
People tell me it seems my photographic works have stories, have some drama. That’s why, later on, I became a film director. Both use images to tell their story, to express the emotions of the author. Photography and filmmaking are like sisters. One is still and one is moving—that is the only difference.
Ho Fan, 2012 HK Magazine article
One of Fan Ho’s most famous and endearing images is that of Approaching Shadow, a print of which sold for $375,000 in 2015. However, a lot of people are surprised to find this is a staged and created piece and only ever existed in the mind of Fan Ho.
Approaching Shadow, Fan Ho, 1954
This is how the work was created. He asked a cousin to pose by a wall at Queen's College in Causeway Bay and added a diagonal shadow in the darkroom to symbolize that "her youth will fade away" since "everyone has the same destiny".
Looking at some of Fan Ho’s other images it’s easy to see the production work in them, but when you think of him being a “Street Photographer”, it’s easy to think these things just happened and the super observant and talented Fan Ho happened to be there with his camera ever at the ready.
This led me to think about other works, such as those by Henri Cartier Bresson, the man of the decisive moment. I have often wondered about these two images by Bresson. Perhaps he was in the right place at the right time, was super patient or plain lucky. But I’ve often thought if he used Fan Ho’s approaching shadow methodology. The guy on the bicycle could easily have been a friend or person who was in the area and he asked him to ride down the street a few times so he could get “the shot”! Or perhaps, this guy just used that street every day to go to work and back and Bresson had already observed that?
The woman on the stair case I always find curious. She is so perfectly placed with the birds flying up around her. I have often sat on the steps in various places around the world in the hope of a similar view, but have yet to ever see anyone do this. In my observation, everyone walks up the stairs near the handrail, mostly for assistance, sometimes in case there’s another person coming, but mostly it feels comfortable to walk next to the wall or handrail. It’s like standing in the middle of the room at a party that hasn’t yet started, we just don’t do it as people. Perhaps he asked her to walk up the middle of the stairs? Or was he just lucky again?
Tree in the snow, Matt Arnold, 2021
Recently this year, we had a little snow. So the inevitable happened, social media feeds being flooded with pretty scenes of snow in the local area. I decided that I would get in on the action, but I found during our recent house move I had lost my gloves and my warm coat was packed away. I was never one to suffer to get the shot, so I found I was too lazy to go outside, hunt down the perfect scene and take a nice snow image. So what did I do instead? I decided to make one. I sat down in the office and drew a nice picture of a tree and some snow. I popped this out on social media for a bit of fun, but instantly had a lot of comments, one person even going so far as to say, I should send this to the local news channel so they can use it for the weather reports. When I posted that the image was 100% fake, I was met with total disbelief and people thought I was making up a story that the image was fake. Even when you tell people it’s a fake they don’t always believe you, even if you’re the author of the hoax!
I wonder how often what we’re looking at isn’t what we think we’re looking at…