Ren Hang

Ren Hang was a Chinese photographer and poet who rose to fame for his daring and explicit portraits of his friends and models. He was born in Changchun, Jilin province, in northeastern China, and moved to Beijing to study advertising at college. He started taking photographs in 2007 as a way to relieve his boredom and express himself. He used a point-and-shoot camera and worked without any plan or preparation, creating surreal and playful images that often featured nude bodies intertwined with animals, plants, and props. He shot mostly in natural or urban settings, and sometimes in his own apartment. He said he did not intend to challenge any boundaries or taboos, but simply to capture what he saw and felt. His work was influenced by the Japanese photographer and filmmaker Shuji Terayama, as well as by his own struggles with depression and anxiety. Ren Hang's photographs were widely exhibited and published around the world, but also faced censorship and controversy in his home country, where nudity and homosexuality are still considered sensitive topics. He was arrested several times by the Chinese authorities and had his website and social media accounts blocked. He received the support of the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who curated his exhibition in Paris in 2014 and praised his work for its freshness and sadness. Ren Hang also wrote poetry, which he published on his blog and in several books. His poems reflected his inner turmoil and his desire to escape from reality. He suffered from cyclical depression and had suicidal thoughts for many years. He died by suicide on February 24, 2017, in Beijing, at the age of 29. He left behind a legacy of provocative and poetic images that challenged the norms and conventions of Chinese society and culture.