Ren Hang

Photographer
Nationality Chinese
Date of birth March 30, 2021
Date of death February 23, 2017

Books by Ren Hang

Biography

Chinese photographer Ren Hang (1987–2017) was born in a suburb of Changchun, Jilin province, in northeastern China. He lived and worked in Beijing. Over his brief six-year career, Ren Hang’s gender-fluid, surreal, erotic, playful and casual yet provocative images gained a huge international following and worldwide fame. He was known mostly for nude photographic portraits of his friends. His work is significant for its representation of Chinese sexuality within a heavily censored society. For these erotic undertones, he was arrested by PRC authorities several times. He received the backing of the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who included Ren in his 2013 Netherlands show, Fuck Off 2 The Sequel, and curated the photographer’s 2014 exhibition in Paris, France. Besides being a photographer Ren Hang was also a poet.

Ren has published many monographs including “Physical Borderline” (ThreeShadows +3 Gallery, China, 2014), “The Brightest Light Runs Too Fast” (Editions Bessard, 2013), “Son and Bitch” (Neurasthenia, 2013), “Republic” (Éditions du LIC, 2013), “My Depression” (Self-Published, 2013), “Nude” (Self-Published, 2012), “Room” (Self-Published, 2011) , “Ren Hang 2009-2011” (Self-Published, 2011) and “Poem Collection of Ren Hang” (Neurasthenia, 2013).