Remembering the brilliant Chinese photographer Ren Hang on the anniversary of his death. Hang’s work was erotic, surreal and celebratory in equal measure, the product of an artist who “saw beyond gender to capture a world of giddy, boundary-defying freedom”, as Charlotte Jansen wrote in her tribute to Hang for Elephant Issue 31. In it, Jansen recalls conducting a rare email interview with the photographer, where he shed some light on his favoured (unclad) subject. “I like [the] naked body and I love having sex”, he explained of the nudity and sexual nature of his photographs. In his work, he added, “what’s really important is people”.
