Session Press is pleased to announce “New Love,” the first official US monograph by Ren Hang, one of China’s most distinguished emerging photographers. “New Love” presents Hang’s most recent photographs, taken in February of 2014, during his first visit to New York City. It is published on the occasion of Hang’s upcoming exhibition “New Love,” to be held June 19 through July 25 at matchbaco gallery in Tokyo, Japan.

Hang’s work in “New Love” includes casual snapshots taken of friends in parks, cafés, streets, and apartments in Brooklyn and Manhattan, smartly blended with the striking nude photos he is becoming increasingly renowned for. Hang is highly censored by the authorities in China, and the opportunity to work in New York City brought a more relaxed and playful energy to his photographs, and gave his abundant creativity new avenues of expression. As a result, both the diaristic pictures and the stylized nudes in “New Love” are imbued with an undeniable sense of discovery and joy, and thrillingly document one of contemporary photography’s most exciting young artists taking bold advantage of the new and unfamiliar.

Based in Beijing, China, Ren Hang is highly recognized for both his fine art and commercial photography. Exhibited around the world, his photographs are in numerous private and public collections, including those of the Kansas State University Art Museum in the United States and the Multimedia Art Museum in Moscow, Russia, as well as the CAFA Art Museum and Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, both in Beijing. “New Love” is Hang’s twelfth book of photographs and his own Poem Collection of Ren Hang.

Artist Statement

Ren Hang and Session Press would like to thank the following for their support on this publication:

David Strettell, Giles Cassels, Alex Lin, Kenichi Nakahashi, Huang Jiaqi, Bryce Zhao, Yao Yuan, Sui Jun, Tran Pham, Li Ke, Jingwen He, Miwa Susuda, Tingting Huang, Garho Kametani, Thomas Bossuyt and Geoff Han.

Ren Hang
(China, 1987)

Ren Hang was born in 1987 in a suburb of Changchun, Jilin province, in northeastern China. Han was a Chinese photographer and poet. 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 PRC authorities several times. He received the backing of the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who included Ren in his 2013 Netherlands show, Fuck Off 2 The Sequel, and curated the photographer's 2014 exhibition in Paris, France. Ren's erotic, playful and casual yet provocative expression gained him worldwide fame.

Ren has published many monographs including “Physical Borderline” (ThreeShadows +3 Gallery, China, 2014), “The Brightest Light Runs Too Fast” (Editions Bessard, 2013), “Son and Bitch” (Neurasthenia, 2013), “Republic” (Éditions du LIC, 2013), “My Depression” (Self-Published, 2013), “Nude” (Self-Published, 2012), “Room” (Self-Published, 2011) , “Ren Hang 2009-2011” (Self-Published, 2011) and “Poem Collection of Ren Hang” (Neurasthenia, 2013) so on