Marco Belpoliti on Fan Ho's Dusty Light and Figures in Motion

Fan Ho, born in 1931 and based in Hong Kong, came from a wealthy family of textile merchants. Writing for Doppiozero on 18 October 2026, Marco Belpoliti and Anita Romanello examine the photographer's preoccupation with people moving up and down stairs and walking along streets. Ho's 1957 image Street Scene shows a dusty, particulate light falling from above that consumes and dulls the space, a quality Belpoliti links to other photographs from the 1960s. Two further stair photographs capture groups in undefined places: the darker one is titled Inferno, while in Down the light dematerializes some of those on the steps yet still leaves their faint shadows on the ground at the bottom of the descent. Street Scene also includes laundry hung out to dry, resembling something descending from above. Even when Ho photographs boats at sea, the same style persists — people coming and going. Light, Belpoliti argues, is what interests Ho above all.