Photobook and Print Exhibition
Nobuyoshi ARAKI, CHAN Wai Kwong, CHOW San, Almond CHU,
Catherine HENRIETTE, LAU Chi Chung, TAM Wai Ping, Hideka TONOMURA,
WONG Kan Tai, Michio YAMAUCHI, Vincent YU, ZHANG Kechun
11 June - 16 August 2020
La Galerie is delighted to present its first Photobook & Print Exhibition, features the work of 12 Hong Kong and international artists: Nobuyoshi ARAKI, CHAN Wai Kwong, CHOW San, Almond CHU, Catherine HENRIETTE, LAU Chi Chung, TAM Wai Ping, Hideka TONOMURA, WONG Kan Tai, Michio YAMAUCHI, Vincent YU, ZHANG Kechun. We are pleased to collaborate with Brownie Publishing and Mark Pearson on this special project.
Brownie Publishing: An independent publisher, dedicated to promoting Hong Kong photography art and photobook. In addition to publishing and online bookstore, Brownie hosts various art and cultural activities, such as exhibition, artist talk, press conference and workshop.
Mark Pearson: Mark Pearson founded Zen Foto Gallery in 2009 in Tokyo, Japan, to show and publish fine art photography from across Asia. Since inception, Zen Foto has published over 140 books of photography by artists from Japan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Thailand and occasionally Europe. Mark established Shashasha in 2014 to bring photography and photobooks to the wider international audience through the internet. Mark is also a collector of photography from across the region.
PHOTOGSTORY will present an archive of past Hong Kong photography magazine in this exhibition.
Special feature artist: LAU Chi Chung
Lau is a visual artist and avid collector of old Hong Kong textbooks. Graduated from The Surry Institute of Art & Design University College (BFA on Interior Design) in 1999, he worked in the television commercial industry as an art director before becoming a full time artist. Lau started out on short films, he mostly works in photography and has exhibited in various international photo festivals. His photography series “Landscaped Artifacts” (2013) has gained him the New Photography Artist of the year from Lianzhoufoto Festival 2013.
“I see ‘Double Gaze’, the title of this series, as a point of view as well as a form of action. It involves at least two parties engaging in a dialogue. Photography, thus, is a form of double gaze, with the subject and object entering into a reflective relationship.”
– Lau Chi Chung
Photobook
Double Gaze (signed edition)
Published by Lau Chi Chung
The Only Day
Published by Lau Chi Chung
Our Old Textbooks 1
Published by Lau Chi Chung
Our Old Textbooks 2
Published by Lau Chi Chung
Nobuyoshi ARAKI
Araki was born in Shitaya-ku (now Taito-ku), Tokyo. Araki graduated from photography faculty at Chiba University and worked at advertising agency Dentsu as a commercial photographer. Here, Araki met his future wife, an essayist Yōko Araki. After they were married in 1971, Araki published a book of pictures of his wife taken during their honeymoon titled Sentimental Journey (Yōko died in 1990). In 1972, Araki resigned from Dentsu and became a freelance photographer. His works are held in numerous museum collections including the Tate and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Photobook
Theatre of Love
Published by Zen Foto Gallery
Unique vintage print
1965, Silver gelatin print
CHAN Wai Kwong
Chan was born in Hong Kong in 1976. He left school at an early age and began to publish his works in 2010. Today Chan has published over thirty photography books and held seventeen solo exhibitions.
Photobook
Oh My Little Girl
Published by Zen Foto Gallery
Yau Ma Tei
Published by Zen Foto Gallery
Yau Ma Tei
2015, Silver gelatin print on fibre paper
CHOW San
Chow began photographing in 2010. He participated in Hong Kong International Photo Festival’s “Dozens of photography works - 100FT.PARK's Special” in 2013, and was selected as one of the finalists of the 2nd Hong Kong Photo Book Awards in 2014. He self-published two photobooks in 2018 and a zine in 2019. In 2020, his zine “the flower” was published as one of the “Dying City” series by Mark Pearson. After the release of “No Teacher But I Can Take Photos” with Zen Foto this year in 2020, Chow has exhibited his works at hk.feature and Kubrick, Hong Kong.
Photobook
No Teacher But I Can Take Photos
Published by Zen Foto Gallery
No Teacher
2010 - 2020, C-print
Almond CHU
Photographer/artist. Graduated from the Tokyo College of Photography. Chu sets up his own studio in 1993 and work on art and commercial projects. He has been invited to exhibit his work in various countries such as Germany, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, USA, Canada, Russia, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and New Zealand. Besides, his work has been featured in numerous international publications.
“I attempt a conceptual approach to explore the meaning of existence of human beings in their cities through their interactions with the perverted environment and situation.”
– Almond Chu
Photobook
The Urbanites
Published by MCCM Creations
Hong Kong/China Photographers Three: Almond Chu by Wolfgang Kubin
Published by Asia One
Sky No. 2 & Sky No. 10
2017, Archival inkjet print on art paper
Parade 16 (The Apple)
2015, Archival inkjet print on art paper
Catherine HENRIETTE
Born in 1960, Catherine Henriette lives between Paris and le Pays basque. After studying Chinese, she arrived in Beijing in 1985 and began a career as a press photographer. Engaged by the France Presse Agency at the time of Tiananmen events in 1989, she left China in 1991 and since has worked for various magazines.
For around thirty years, Catherine Henriette has been observing China, with its economic, cultural and social evolution. She has seen the transformation of the landscapes and cities. As a firsthand witness to this frenzy, Catherine Henriette paused time with her Leica camera and rolls of film. With the modern China as her backdrop, she has captured the vanishing points and figures, and photographed them like a shifting mirage.
Photobook
Conte d'hiver, Conte d'été
Published by Filigranes
TAM Wai Ping
Tam graduated from the University of Reading in 1991 and completed his postgraduate studies at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College of London, in 1995. He is the chairman and co-founder of Art Map, and currently serves as an associate professor in the Department of Fine Arts of The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
He works in variety of media and is known in particular for his photography, installation and environmental art. Tam’s early work explored the definition of what is real, searching for the situational differences between fact and fiction. Confronted by the hardships of reality, he has always endeavoured to find ways to contextualise history and contemporary life, which has led him to examine the relationship between the ‘individual’ and ‘land’ and, from there, to investigate ‘modernity’ in Asian values.
Photobook
Life Pilgrimages
Published by Brownie Publishing Ltd.
Life Pilgrimages JP08
2007, Archival photo paper
Life Pilgrimages HK01
2006, Archival photo paper
Hideka TONOMURA
Born in 1979, in Kobe, Hyogo prefecture, Tonomura graduated from the Broadcasting and Filmmaking Department of Osaka Visual Arts School and began photography in 2002. She published her first photobook “mama love” in 2008 with Akaaka Art Publishing, revealing her deepest pain and the dark, hidden secrets of her family, leaving an unforgettable impression. In 2013 she published “They called me Yukari” with Zen Foto Gallery, in which she documented the life and people around her when she was working as a hostess in Kabukicho, Shinjuku. Actively presenting her work in and out of Japan, her recent publications include “orange elephant” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2015), “cheki” (Morel Books, 2018), and “die of love” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2018). Having experienced cancer diagnosis and treatment herself in 2019, Hideka started the “Shining Woman Project”—a portrait project dedicated to women who fight cancer. A publication on the project is scheduled to be released near the end of 2020. Her series “mama love” will be exhibited at Maison Européenne de la Photographie in 2021.
Photobook
Die of Love
Published by Zen Foto Gallery
Orange Elephant
Published by Zen Foto Gallery
They called me Yukari
Published by Zen Foto Gallery
They called me Yukari
2007-2009, Digital C-print on RC paper
They called me Yukari
2007-2009, Digital C-print on RC paper
WONG Kan Tai
Wong was born on Lantau, Hong Kong in 1957. He joined the Hong Kong Press in the late 1970s and started a long career as a photojournalist. He studied photography in the Tokyo Institute of Polytechnics. His photographic collections published include 89' Tiananmen Square, Hong Kong Walled City 2002 - 2007, Vajrayāna, The Queen's, Fukushima , Secret 1842~1997 and Xinjiang 1980. His works have been collected by Hong Kong Heritage Museum and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Vajrayāna is a collection of photos shot by Wong and his partner Ah Fai during a long journey to Buddhist temples that took them through India, Tibet, Nepal and the Himalayas. Wong first visited Tibet in 1991, having felt inexplicably drawn to the Buddhist country, and planned to conclude his photographic project within two or three years. Due to unforeseen circumstances and his and his wife’s growing interest in Tibetan Buddhism, their journey grew to reach much further than Tibet. Wong still considers the project incomplete.
Photobook
Vajrayāna
Published by Inertia Books
Xinjiang 1980
published by the Wong Kan Tai
Vajrayāna 01
1991-2014, Silver print
Vajrayāna 02
1991-2014, Silver print
Vajrayāna 03
1991-2014, Silver print
Michio YAMAUCHI
Yamauchi was born in 1950 in Aichi Prefecture. He graduated from the Second Literary Department (no longer extant) of Waseda University. In 1980, he started night school at the Tokyo School of Photography (currently Tokyo Visual Arts School). In 1982, he graduated from the Tokyo School of Photography and took part in an independent gallery known as Image Shop CAMP, and began showing photographs in photography magazines and independent galleries. Since 1992, he has shot not only in Tokyo, but also in other major Asian cities including Shanghai, Hong Kong and Dhaka. He is the recipient of the 20th Tadahiko Hayashi Award (for “Keelung,” 2011) and the 35th Domon Ken Award (for “Dhaka 2,” fiscal 2015). His photographs are included in the collections of The Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo and Shunan City Museum of Art and History, Yamaguchi.
Photobook
Hong Kong 1995 - 1997 (signed edition)
Published by Shahasha Co.
Hong Kong 1995 - 1997
Silver gelatin print on fibre paper
Hong Kong 1995 - 1997
Silver gelatin print on fibre paper
Vincent YU
Yu has worked as an Associated Press photographer covering major news events across the Asia-Pacific region since the mid-1980s. As a close observer of Hong Kong’s social and political development, Yu has acquired a unique sensitivity towards the territory's ever-changing cityscape. In particular, he is interested in documenting disappearing heritage and architecture as well as communities affected by these changes.
His work has been recognized with important honours, including the 2010 World Press Photo Awards 3rd Prize “People in the News” singles category, 2013 Picture of the Year Awards, and numerous Hong Kong Press Photographers Association Annual Awards. His works are collected by the Hong Kong Heritage Museum.
Photobook
HKG
Published by Brownie Publishing Ltd.
Hong Kong/China Photographers Nine: Vincent Yu by Blues Wong
Published by Asia One
Our Home, Shek Kip Mei 1954 - 2006
Published by MCCM Creations
Hong Kong Under Typhoon
2017, Archival inkjet print on fine art paper
Waterfall at Wah Fu Estate
2018, Archival inkjet print on fine art paper
ZHANG Kechun
Zhang was born in 1980 in Sichuan, China, and started painting when he was a child. He studied art and design and on graduating he worked as a designer in Chengdu before becoming interested in photography. Zhang is best known for his large format photographs of post-industrial Chinese landscapes. He produces epic vistas that dwell on the significance of the landscape in modern Chinese national identity.
Zhang won the Discovery Award at Les Rencontres d’Arles for The Yellow River in 2014. Working with the agency Most, Zhang also undertakes editorial and advertising commissions. He won the National Geographic Picks Global Photo Contest in 1998 and was shortlisted at the World Photography Awards in 2013. He has been exhibited at Photoquai, Paris; the Beijing Photo Biennale and the Delhi Photo Festival, India.
In 2010, Zhang decided to undertake a trip along the length of the Yellow River. Inspired by the novel River of the North by Chengzhi Zhang, Zhang wanted to experience the river’s “overwhelming fatherly presence in the country.” The project took him on a two-year journey along the river from the coastal flats of Shandong in the east to the mountains of Qinghai in the west. He completed the journey on a fold-up bicycle, all the while carrying with him a large format Linhof camera. The photographs he took along the way comprise his first series The Yellow River. The Yellow River documented the effects of modernisation along the third longest river in Asia, which is also known as Huang He.
Photobook
The Yellow River (signed edition)
Published by Jiazachi
Men Climbing a Billboard, Qinghai
2010, Inkjet print on photo rag ultra smooth paper