Fan Ho was born in Shanghai in 1931. At the age of 18 - faced with a Chinese civil war and the impending Communist revolution - Fan Ho’s parents moved to Hong Kong where the young man continued pursuing his passion for photography. As a new émigré to Hong Kong Fan Ho was surrounded by other Chinese fleeing the Mainland, and we find in his work a strong sense of humanism, theater, and poetry. Fan Ho shows us a dreamy yet existential vision of the spirit of a people on the move - rebuilding and reconfiguring their lives in their new adopted home the colonial port city. Through his work, Fan Ho’s Hong Kong becomes an ethereal image of smoky lights, dramatic shadows, and isolated figures captured in a decisive moment of stillness. Fan Ho was most prolific in his teens and 20’s and created his biggest body of work before he reached the tender age of 28. 

Fan Ho passed away in 2016 in San Jose, California. His work is featured in many private and public collections, including: M+ Museum, Hong Kong Heritage Museum, Peabody Essex Museum, Bibliothèque National de France, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art, and others.