REN HANG

Peter Coeln
REN HANG

Photographs: Peter Coeln

Publisher: Dienacht

96 pages

Year: 2024

Price: 35 €

Comments: Book in printed half slipcase, 24 x including a folded poster and booklet with 5 works by Ren Hang 96 pages including 7 fold-outs + poster + booklet Open thread stitching, soft cardboard with foil embossing and photo application.

During his time in Vienna, he decided to have a photoshoot in the city. Peter Coeln, photographer, collector and, among others, founder of photography museum WestLicht and OstLicht, is one of the very few people Ren Hang ever allowed to accompany while working. By publishing this book about Ren Hang at work (and including some of original photographs Ren Hang created during this shoot), the circle is complete.

Peter Coeln: "Ren Hang, like his photographs, was unique – tall in stature and endowed with a special charisma. He stayed in Vienna with his boyfriend Huang Jiaqui for a fortnight. They seemed to be a happy couple. […] I enjoyed his presence and his company, and he seemed to enjoy mine. He liked the city. He informed us he wanted to have a photoshoot here in Vienna. We organized a casting for him through an announcement on social media.

Then he asked me if I could accompany him and the team for the photoshoot. […] Knowing that he never accepted being photographed when working, I was quite surprised that he did not mind me taking pictures.

It was Wednesday, the 25th of March. It was a cool, friendly spring day. There were three young people completely naked in the cold Wien River and later in the “-Wienerwald,” a forest of broadleaf trees. They were climbing trees, laying on the ground covered with fallen leaves, and dipping into the water of the river. […] It was intimate. And yet, the three naked people modeling were strangers to each other and to the rest of the small crew. The interaction was playful and smooth. They laughed while struggling to pose, hanging from a tree like monkeys, having the camera getting closer and closer to their butts, or freezing and having an erection in the river. And yet, it was serious. They were all committed to one vision: Ren Hang’s. He had a clear idea of how a body can behave, move, and look. He knew how human bodies can interact together. It was provocative. And yet, there was no anger. It was funny. His images play on the finest edge between irony and arousal, pleasure and dryness, enjoyment and sadness. I had the impression he felt very comfortable in Vienna. He said he would come back. He was happy.
And yet, he was sad.