By Liam Fitzpatrick, TIME magazine
In the Autumn of 1997, Yau Leung was just starting to earn a minor artistic reputation when he slipped off a ladder in his studio, hit his head, and died. That the light should have left the eyes of Hong Kong's greatest photographer in so banal a manner makes contemplation of his passing especially difficult. If photographers are not felled covering disgraceful coups or scrappy jungle wars, posterity likes them to advance to gurgling senility, feted by models, retrospectives and hand-numbered editions. There is no romance in death by lapse of concentration — especially not in a man whose defining artistic characteristic was his undivided presence in, and intense focus on, the moment.
Hardly any of Yau's works are on public display in Hong Kong (although a few pieces were recently hanging in the Heritage Museum as part of a temporary exhibition on the history of cameras). He did not leave a family. His books are out of print or hard to find, and his prints are not available for purchase from any local galleries (however they can be bought from a small one in Toronto, established by the Hong Kong photographer Lee Ka-sing). Outside a tiny circle of dilettantes, nobody knows his name. Thus, 10 years after his death at the age of 56, Yau continues to be as obscure as he was in life....
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Howard French
Photo: Pictorial Publishers Ltd.
Great, thanks for sharing this!
From what is written, i gain real sympathy for this man.
Posted by: Andreas | Friday, 26 October 2007 at 11:50 AM
"The things that happen now will be history tomorrow."
This is reason enough to keep on taking photographs, in whatever make, or obscurity.
Posted by: CP | Friday, 26 October 2007 at 04:47 PM
As we ponder over the promises of the next generation of wunderchips with their low noise and high ISO.... let's take a look at the camera Mr. Yau most likely used in the streets of Hong Kong half a century ago:
http://www.cameraquest.com/voiprom.htm
No Leica was put in harm's way in the making of pictures we now reappraise as historically important and artistically the equals of the great Masters of the West.
Take that digigearheads!
Posted by: Antonis | Sunday, 28 October 2007 at 02:01 PM