“Figures of Speech” presents the work of a group of photographers living and working in Hong Kong from the 1950s through to the present. The inspiration is serious and playful. The title refers to the subjects of the photographs, but are portraits in the conventional sense. The exhibition begins with three rare portraits by Fan Ho, one of Hong Kong’s prolific early photographers, who saw daily life as a “living theatre”. This is the aura of “Figures of Speech”.

From Yau Leung’s studios shots of famous actresses to Meng Minsheng’s staged tributes to mainland ideology, from Leung Chi Wo + Sara Wong’s recognition of the unknown figures caught in historic photographs to Stanley Fung’s spiritual narratives, the people in these portraits function in metaphoric fashion to speak of something more than just themselves. Here, a photograph is a stage upon which the person in the picture enacts character or identity. The various bodies of photographs in “Figures of Speech” demonstrate the incisive role of dramatist that great photographers so deftly play.

“Figures of Speech” extends the survey of Chinese photography that was undertaken in the recent SCoP exhibition “Grain to Pixel”. The exhibition offers a distinctive approach to portrait photography, connecting time and space, different ideologies and forms of expression.

“Figures of Speech” is curated by Karen Smith.

About the exhibition

Exhibition Opening: December 12th 4-6pm

Exhibition Dates: December 13th 2015 – February 29th 2016

Time: Tuesday-Sunday, 10:30am-5:30pm (last entry 5pm)

Venue: Shanghai Center of Photography (SCôP)

Address: 2555-1 Longteng Avenue, Shanghai, China (near Fenggu Road)

Metro: Yunjin Road, Line 11

Ticket: ¥40 / Discounted Price: ¥30

Contact: +86 (0)21 6428 9516

Email: info@scop-sh.com

Courtesy of the artists and Shanghai Center of Photography.