Ren Hang was a photographer and poet born in a suburb of Changchun, in Northeastern China. During Ren’s incipient career, he was known mostly for nude photographic portraits of his friends. His work is significant for its representation of Chinese sexuality within a heavily censored society. For these erotic undertones, he was arrested by the PRC authorities several times and received the backing of Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei, who included Ren in his 2013 The Netherlands Show, Fuck Off 2 The Sequel, and curated the photographer’s 2014 exhibition in Paris. Using point-and-shoot film cameras and photographing mostly his friends, Ren built up an extensive body of work in which clothing was a rarity, and gender and sexuality was an afterthought. Body parts are presented in every form: erect, limp, hairy, shaved, stacked, twisted, intertwined, bent, pinched.
“I don’t really view my work as taboo, because I don’t think so much in cultural context or political context,” he told Taschen. “I don’t intentionally push boundaries. I just do what I do.”
