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Artist statement
 

Fang Tong: Alone

 

I have shot this ‘Alone’ series over several years. In the beginning, I was often attracted to some ethereal lonely scenes, so I started shooting. These photos seem to be snapshots, but in fact, I arranged all the scenes and characters. They are staged photos. I prefer to use this method to shoot; I like the better control of the picture and atmosphere. The atmosphere is a very important factor for my photography. As a cinematic style photographer, I don’t really try to tell a story in one picture, but to create some emotions and atmosphere is always my passion.
 

Many of us live in a busy city, and there is almost no time to be alone, always surrounded by things we need to deal with and people. Our time alone is limited, so that many people are no longer used to being alone or avoid being alone or are even afraid of being alone. I think ‘Alone’ here refers not only to the physical, but also to the emotional aspects of life. When we are only by ourselves, we may become more real in some way. In the past few years, from time to time, I engaged people of different ages and genders to obtain those shots. I was more and more attracted to those different individuals' appearances when they were alone.

 

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Biography

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Fang Tong graduated from the Fine Arts Institute of Shanghai University and studied in France. She is based in Vancouver Canada. She has been awarded several major international photography awards. She has been published in Canadian and international magazines such as Yishu, VOGUE, The Globe and mail, The Georgia Straight and other major domestic and foreign magazines. Fang won the first prize in the Nikon International Photography Competition in 2015. She was commissioned by Sony in 2013 as one of 20 photographers around the world to represent Sony’s camera phone. She had solo and group shows in different cities, such as Paris, Italy, London, Shanghai, Vancouver.

 

Fang Tong is a cinematic style photographer, as a spectator of life. Her works are embedded with an implied narrative, which is left to the viewer to resolve over time with their own imagination. Reflecting her background in classical art, the photography is carefully planned to control the frame and the expression of details, giving her work an ethos of a painter. As a bystander, Fang Tong captures the potential that photography can embody pieces with an eternal quality, thereby creating a slightly fictional world that resembles reality but transcends consciousness. Fang Tong’s passion is for her work to border on the surreal, yet hold back enough to keep it firmly in the real world. Her photos provoke audiences to create a narrative out of cinematic pictures. There may be no clearly defined story behind the scene, but there is a strong mood and atmosphere throughout the whole image. The imaginary world is strangely familiar while the narrative arc takes audiences on a hyper-visual ride through people's subconsciousness. She nurtures the balance between the real and the surreal that pulls her audiences into the world she created, but she also allows the audience to discover their own answers.

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To find out more about Fang Tong, click here:

https://www.fangtongphotography.com/ 

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