Taiwan Today

An interview with a 'painter' of films

Over the past two decades "five-star photographer" Ho Fan has won 268 prizes in international competitions. Though he transferred his interest in photography to movie production in recent years, he is still among the elite few with five-star status among local photographers.

Ho Fan's popularity extends beyond photography circles to the movie goers of the 1960s. In 1964, Ho played the role of a comic monk in the film "Pilgrimage to the West," and titillated local audiences. In 1966, "San San," a film featuring Ho and actress Lee Ching in the leading roles, was voted Best Motion Picture at the Asian Film Festival. After the festival Ho turned from actor to director.

Now in his 40s, Ho is graying. He harbors a keen insight into his own ambience. Born in Shanghai in 1937, he spent his childhood around his father's spinning mill. The family moved to Hong Kong in 1949 when the mainland was in upheaval. When his father wanted him to take over the textile factory, he wasn't interested.

"How did you get involved in photography?"

"I wanted desperately to be a writer. My favorite writer was Russia's Tolstoy, author of 'War and Peace.' While attending middle school in Hong Kong, I began to read all kinds of literature. Perhaps I studied too hard; it turned out that once I started to read so many books, I developed terrible headaches. Doctors advised me to participate in outdoor activities. I hiked to the mountains and riversides and brought a camera along to record scenery and people along the way. Once a newspaper in Hong Kong held a photography contest; I entered one of my photos and unexpectedly won first prize. It boosted my confidence. I thought then that I was not destined to be a writer, but would try to express my feelings via the camera."

Given the opportunity as a result of his contacts in the movie company, Ho Fan decided to try his hand at film direction. "I told the Shaw's movie company in Hong Kong that I wanted to be a director. However, the boss said that, though I had long experience in still photography, I was too short in cinematography experience. As the Shaw's needed young male actors, I was assigned to be an actor - really to learn the business from one end to the other. I made more than ten films from 1960 to 1968. When one of my 16mm experimental films, called 'Separation,' won a prize in England and another, 'Enamoration,' was chosen for exhibition at the Cannes and Berlin film festivals, I was finally invited to direct. Today I am still fumbling for new styles and paths in movie production."

Ho has been awarded honorary titles by 15 world photographic groups, including the British Royal Photography Society and the U.S. Photography Society. He is frequently asked, as an international expert, the old photographer's question.

"How do you tell a good picture from a bad one?"

"A good photographer must first be honest both to himself and to his works," he responds, "Besides a good command of technique, he must be able to express his own thoughts in precision language. Honesty is the basic condition for good art. Of course, good pictures must also be able to attract people's attention, to move them, and to be seen time and again and be savored for a long time."

"Would you please provide more detailed criteria?"

"Some prefer to make an analysis basing from the layout and structure of the picture, or from the contrast between light and darkness, in order to control the mood and its connotations. However, not infrequently, photographers purposefully violate these 'regulations.' After all, art is not science, and need not be treated so. As in the other arts, the longer you immerse yourself within it the better will you foster a 'sharp eye' for good work. I have served as a judge in photography competitions in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and a simple glance is usually enough to tell me when a picture is a special achievement."

In general, the 40 photographs Ho displayed at his recent show at the Lun Men Gallery were dominated by a profound melancholy and an aesthetic and nostalgic sentimentality. Only a few exceptions sparkled with hope. The themes mostly involved the sea, boats, coolies and alienated persons. A number of photos were inscribed calligraphically with religious sermons or poems.

"I worship God," he says, "but not in a way confined by any specific secular religion. For instance, I love the sea. Whenever I am at the seashore breathing the fresh sea air and gazing across the tumbling waves, I feel that I am small and helpless. The sea gives me a sense of eternity and reinforces my belief that there is a god in the universe - not in the shape of any icon, but a formless and incomprehensible being. Just as Lao Tze said: 'Once truth can be preached, it is not eternal truth.''' To search out the root truth of God is the central theme of Ho Fan's photography - the prime mover of his creation.

The so-called "five-star" photographer has passed concrete milestones. For a photographer to gain one star, he must have won five awards each for six master works. To gain two stars, the number of such award-winning pictures is increased to 16; for three stars, 32; for four stars, 64; and for five, 128. So Ho has won more than 640 awards for 128 of his pictures.

Currently, Ho has shifted the focus of his work from aesthetic representation to realism and the sharply experimental. Little girls vending fruit along Hong Kong streets, coolies working at dockside and women ferry boating are among some of the most prominent subjects. Via a dexterous control of lenses and techniques, he has been able to present a new and puzzling world of mind.

"Why did you ever choose a motif so far from your own world?"

Indeed, instead of the "arrogant and snobbish" world of successful commerce, Ho Fan thrusts his lenses into a world of simpler folk and into the pathos of lonely souls. He remembers some of Tolstoy's words, advising that art is meant to touch the heart or it is nothing. That is why he chooses "real" people. He wants to lead the viewer to prospect an uncommon "real" world apart from the facade of everyday events. Through the contrast and thrill of the black and white photography, Ho delineates a profound world, marked with love.