Date :
2014.09.05 - 2014.09.30

Location :
CMC Gallery, L3, Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre

Time :
Exhibition: 2014.09.06-09.30, 12pm - 7pm, Monday - Saturday

Free Admission

The exhibition programme is one of the programmes of HKIPF Hong Kong International Photo Festival 2014

All prints in this exhibition are for sale. Please enquire. The print sales will be put towards JULIAN LEE PHOTOGRAPHIC SCHOLARSHIP. Please call Ms Fion Ng at 3442 7659

BOOK LAUNCH: Hong Kong/China Photographers Eight : Julian Lee (Publication: Asia One) cum Preview Reception

Date: 2014.09.05 (Friday)
Time: 6pm
Venue: CMC Gallery, L3, Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre

中文版本請按此

Movie stars from the 80s, from gay icon to decadent abandon; lonesome gaze on strangers and encounters ; nude male a la Michelangelo ; religious objects of spiritual redemption and desire; meditative landscapes after the photographer’s cancer. A perfumed gala of visual senses from the Mishima look of Zhang Yi Mou to a phallic memento mori .The 102 photos in this retrospective transform the gallery into an empire of sensuality that defines the obsession of Julian Lee.

The First Retrospective of Julian Lee  is an accumulation of Julian’s work for the past 30 years. His gay sensibility perfumes his works from the 80’s up to now since he started up as a celebrity photographer for the very Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine look-alike, the Hong Kong City Magazine, the most chic and trend-setting magazine during that period.

In his first section, Vanity Fair, he displayed a sensual Zhang Yi Mou with the reference of Mishima as in Mishima’s book ‘Ordeal by Roses’ His camera reveals the very private  personality  of Joey Wang, Andy Lau, Anthony Wong and many other celebrities with a very self – confessional approach. You can almost feel the intimacy of the stars as a confidant.

In the Second Section of the exhibition ‘Law of Desire’, Julian Lee displays his harvest of men when he moves to London in late eighties to enroll in Royal College of Art and triumphs as the best art graduate in the British New Contemporaries exhibiting opposite to Damien Hirst in the same exhibition.  Julian Lee challenges the norm with his beautiful image of men, either in a meditative gesture or a sensuous pose that defies the conservative atmosphere of the HK society at that period. His beauty of men is a reflection to his opening up to his own desire as being gay. And his beautiful Jesus Christ figure adores the record cover of Boy George’s Il Adore CD cover.

In the third section ‘Flesh and Soul‘ , male nudes are explored to the likening of michealanglo’s sculpture and Manet’s Olympia, the nude painting. Julian employs the reference of classical painting to pose his male models to substitute the original female nude and projects his fantasy on his body aesthetics. His male nudes has been collected into the exhibition and book of the same title : ‘Suspending Torso’, launched in Hong Kong Photo Festival in 2010.

In the fourth section , ‘ My Vanitas’, Julian explores his sentiments through the theme of life and death after he was diagonised with cancer, and in this period, angelic figure, skull and religious objects reflects his obsession with preciousness of being young and innocent. All are memento mori ( religious object as in classical renaissance painting) to his last breath to keep the sense of beauty like a visual poem. These images defines Julian as a visionary of senses and sensation.

In the last section, the fifth section of the exhibition, ‘Pantonemine’ is a playful combination of the word ‘Pantone’ and ‘Mine’, which is suggested as ‘my colorful life’. Here we find a different Julian as he is calm, meditative and relaxed to enjoy a glimpse of himself within the nature. Contemplating on Juilan’s landscape taken during his travels, you cannot but amazed as he captures the connection between men and nature, which is expressed as symbolism as in the painting of Caspar David Friedrich. Julian himself enjoys describing the exhibits in this section, very ‘Edward Hopper’sque ‘. The casual glance of the mundane reveals the beauty of the permanent compared to the transience of life.

Preface to the Exhibition

Julian Lee

Visionaire of Senses

Written by Calvin Hui (Foreword of Exhibition Catalog)

When I first met Julian Lee I was immediately drawn in by his charismatic character. I could lie and say it was his charm, but in reality it was his annoying insistence that eventually won me over.  In the years since that first meeting I have understood Julian’s strength has been to never see an obstacle as an insurmountable problem. You just get on with what you have to do. This is reflective of his work as an artist, in his acceptance of his homosexuality at a time when it was a love that dared not speak its name and, of course, in his resolve with his battle with cancer. Julian Lee is a complex person: a filmmaker, photographer, visual artist, creator, poofter, victim and survivor.

His biography is well known and I will not spend too much time repeating here what is easily searchable on the web. Graduating from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in communications in 1984, he started his career in Hong Kong’s Television Broadcast Ltd. However, he made his name in Hong Kong as a writer of controversial articles in newspapers and magazines such as Oriental Daily News, Ming Pao Newspaper, Sing Tao Newspaper, Hong Kong Economic Times. He gained fame by working as a photographer and editor/writer/photographer to City Magazine, Hong Kong’s most avant-garde glossy magazine at this period. It was at this time that Julian began to discover his unique talent as an image maker. This passion saw him leave Hong Kong in 1988 and enroll in Royal College of Art in London for a Master degree in photography. Several years and numerous awards, including best art graduate in British New Contemporaries, later Julian was selected by the British Film Institute Screenwriter Program. Here he developed his first film script, paving the way for his eventual debut as a feature film director. Julian has never felt been contained by any label that others use to define his talent. Call him a film maker, a photographer, a visual artist, a writer or a director, he is, at almost any part of the day, all of these things. Some people in life are ‘a jack of all trades and master of none’, but Julian is a master of all trades. His perfection is reflected in every aspect of his life and portrayed evocatively in his photography.

We live in a world of instant imagery. Every phone is a small lens on the world in which we wander, yet most of us fail to see beauty. Julian is the opposite. He sees imagery where others see nothing. He sees sexuality where we see mundaneness, and I often smile knowing his doctors cure him with firm torsos and square jaws. Fantasy is a part of Julian’s life that he captures magically in his photography. An essence of subjective innocence is hidden behind provocative postures. This captures Julian’s personality, poetically telling the viewer that no one is innocent and everyone sexual.

Julian uses the male form as his canvas. As Michelangelo adorned the vast halls of Italy with sensuality created from perfect abdominal muscles, so too does Julian. There is never any reason to believe that his models are gay, but one assumes they are. This connection allows the sexuality of the muse and Julian to be connected in the imagery: forbidden fruit, elixir of passion, lust and perhaps, occasionally – love.

Julian Lee, rebellious?  No, just honest with his sexuality, capturing the lust that regardless of one’s age or sexual orientation exists. Julian is not entirely traditional. His photography relies not solely upon the image but upon the connection the viewer feels. It is a moment of sexual tension between the photographer, the muse and the person looking on. It is – a threesome!

I asked Julian some questions about his photography. I loved his replies because they are to the point. They reflect a man living with his mortality, a cancer warrior who fights his demons but remains passionate and sexual.

Your photography is sexual. One almost feels they reflect an intimacy between the onlooker and you, rather than an intimacy between you and the subject. Was this deliberate?

“No, not deliberate, but of course an onlooker is sexual. I never separate my public and private life and I was astounded to be called a gay activist in Hong Kong. I photograph whoever and I go wherever, my camera is always with me, even by my bedside.  I do not separate life from photographic subject matter. When they are sleeping, in bed, in the shower or anywhere; perhaps at times the image is blurred or even gloomy so the onlooker has a voyeuristic feel. For me voyeurism is a great strategy in contemporary photography, much like Guy Bourdin or Robert Mapplethorpe, both of whom I greatly admire.”

Your models are always perfect, and well endowed. They reflect authority and power. Is this reflective of your own life – a search for a need to be controlled?

“The models I choose are classically beautiful, reflecting a western art tradition used since Greek and Roman sculpture; like Michelangelo, Manet, Ingres. I sometimes place a male in the frame replacing the feminine expected pose. For myself, deleting the western classical art framework does not work.  For my own life, no, I am not controlled or seeking to be controlled. The guy I want is always a model to me, but I need to maintain my gaze over him. I suppose you can say that I am a superficial photographer.”

Sexual freedom is often deemed to be a part of being artistic. Was this true with you – were you able to always realise your fantasies or does your art make up for lost dreams?

“Sexual freedom is always artistic freedom, but artistic freedom requires craftsmanship. I have endeavored to study art history and its evolution. I came into the gay scene in my late 20s but was already ‘labeled’ as a result of my early celebrity photographs in City Magazine in Hong Kong. Of course, homosexuality was still illegal then.  I don’t feel there is any compensation chasing lost dreams. From day one I was aware of how I depicted my world and how the pose, choice of model, artistic direction & composition, all fell into a gay sensibility and aesthetic: Innate emotions born within me but only expressed freely when I admitted to myself my sexuality. My photography preceded my own sexual awareness. You can always fancy someone and make him into your photo as a longing or an object of desire. You don’t need to have sex with him.  This is of course happened in the majority of my photographs.”

The influence of Guy Bourdin and Robert Mapplethorpe on Julian’s work is evident. Personally I find Mapplethorpe to be closer to the person that is Julian, similarly working predominantly in black and white with a focus on erotic imagery. Julian too would refer, as Mapplethorpe did, to some of his work being regarded as pornographic with the sole aim of arousing the viewer whilst all the time regarding the imagery as high art.  Mapplethorpe and Julian were unfairly labeled early in their careers, yet each refused to alter their work to suit the conservative values of those who dared to judge their art. Mapplethorpe died young at only forty two years of age, his beautiful imagery left as a testament to his passion and his love – much as Julian, confronting his own mortality as he battles cancer continues to create imagery that haunts the recesses of our own sexuality.

Julian’s influence from Guy Bourdin is for me in the sexuality of both their work. Born in 1928 Bourdin grew up in a world completely different to Julian and Mapplethorpe, yet they all share an ability to engage an audience in the sensuality of the image. Bourdin was perhaps the first photographer to truly shock a viewer with his provocative, exotic and at times sinister imagery.  Julian’s work for me has all of these elements; the change is the viewer. We live in a world where shock is harder to achieve, but Julian has the ability to caress the mind as he guides us to enter a world hidden within our own conscience.

Julian Lee is my friend, but he is not someone I would want to sit next to on a long flight. I say this endearingly, as Julian is a man never at rest. His mind is constantly active, and to be cocooned within the fragile shell of an aircraft represents in some way the fragility of his own life. From the outside it may look strong and capable of anything, but inside, upon each seat if you will, are the myriad of dreams and the sexual fantasies of a million lives, some touching each other for but a moment in time.

Julian’s photography is a shutter click that freezes a moment. It is an unrequited love, it is lust lost, but with the dream that it will be found again.

JULIAN LEE Biography

Julian Lee is a multi-talented Hong Kong-based artist who creates works in multiple media, including film, photography and literature. He is a renowned photographer with international exhibition credits and has written more than seventeen books, including four novels and three story collections.  He has written and directed two films, NIGHT CORRIDOR 妖夜迴廊 and THE ACCIDENT 心猿意馬, both adapted from his own novels.  He merges different media into a visual and textual playground in which his photos, films and fiction explore themes of forbidden love and exotic sensuality.

After graduating from the Chinese University Hong Kong in 1984 with a degree in communications, Lee started his career at TVB, Television Broadcast Ltd. 無線電視 as a researcher and scriptwriter, and moved into the film industry as art director and scriptwriter in the mid-eighties. However, he made his name in Hong Kong as the author of controversial articles in newspapers and magazines. His columns, which attracted a significant following, have appeared in Oriental Daily News 東方日報, Ming Pao Newspaper 明報, Sing Tao Newspaper 星島日報, Hong Kong Economic Times 經濟日報, and Headline Newspaper 頭條日報. He gained fame as a photographer and editor/writer for City Magazine號外, Hong Kong’s most exciting art and culture magazine of the period. In 1988, after a sojourn in New York, Lee enrolled in a Master’s degree programme in photography at the Royal College of Art in London, where in 1991 he was selected to participate in the very prestigious British New Contemporaries exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts.

In 1991, he won the European Eurocreation Program Award, which allowed him to work on video art projects in Frankfurt, Germany. He remained in Europe for eight years to develop his artistic career, working in photography and video and also as a correspondent for publications in Hong Kong. His photographic clients included famous publishers such as Jonathan Cape, Random Century and Harper Collins. His videos were exhibited and very positively received at the London Film Festival, the Rotterdam Film Festival and in several other European countries. In 1994, he was selected for the British Film Institute Screenwriter Program, where he developed his first film script and paved the way for his eventual debut as a feature film director. His novel inspired Wong Kar Wai to make HAPPY TOGETHER in Buenos Aires, and Lee subsequently accepted a position as photographer during the production of that film in 1996.

In 1997, he returned to Hong Kong to seek backing to turn his novel THE ACCIDENT心猿意馬 into a feature film, which eventually premiered in Hong Kong in January 1999. He was awarded a grant from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council in 2001 to turn his suspense novel NIGHT CORRIDOR into his second film, which was an official selection of the 2003 Hong Kong International Film Festival and played in multiple film festivals and competitions around the world. The film also won two nominations, for best actor and best supporting actress, in the Golden Horse Film Awards.  Two of Lee’s other film projects, PAPA IS A ROLLING STONE岳飛正傳 and STOMA造口人, have been selected for participation in international film platforms,  the former chosen for the HONG KONG ASIA FILM FINANCE FORUM,  and the latter for the GOLDEN HORSE FILM PROJECT PROMOTION and the ASIAN PROJECT MARKET at the PUSAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL.

Today, Julian Lee continues to explore new avenues of expanded photographic expression through his role as associate professor of photography in the School of Creative Media at the City University of Hong Kong. He established the School’s photographic studio, which provides one of the best university-level training grounds in Hong Kong. His early photographic output after joining the university faculties includes the exhibition FLYING TRAPEZE, an abstract expressionist acrobatic portfolio shown at Goethe Institute, Hong Kong in 2001.  His creative research in interactive photography on a digital screen was presented as LANDSCAPE IN THE MIST, exhibited in the Le French May arts festival in 2005. This exhibition featured the newest techniques of displaying interactive landscapes on a plasma screen, reframing digital photography as a digital canvas. In 2010’s Hong Kong Photo Festival, Lee exhibited his fine art male nude photography as SUSPENDING TORSO.  A photo book of the same title was published and launched during the exhibition. He also exhibited his photo series THE ORIGIN OF TRUTH at the Index Gallery, Toronto in 2010.

In 2009, Lee was the recipient of the Starr Foundation Fellowship, a prestigious award from the Asian Cultural Council.  He subsequently was invited to participate in a scholarly exchange in the United States, but was prevented from taking up the offer because of a diagnosis of cancer. Nonetheless, in 2014, he was a visiting scholar at the University of Westminster in London despite his illness.

Lee has survived with cancer for several years now, and in 2013 published two new books, STOMA 我與罕癌博鬥and WALTZ WITH CANCER癌中作樂, the former a documentary fiction reflecting on his battle with cancer and the latter a collection of columns published in the Hong Kong Headline Newspaper頭條日報.  Despite being hospitalized at the time, he also participated in the international photographic art exhibition SPRING in AO Vertical Gallery Hong Kong on the theme of Nude Art, alongside iconic artists Araki and Erwin Olaf.

In the culminating stage of his career, between 2011- 2014, Julian Lee has expanded his photographic practice in new directions.  His video installations, SHADOW PLAY and TRANSPORTER, were featured in the exhibition THE BURNING EDGE, and another video piece entitled 13 LAYERS was commissioned by the exhibition Canto 6, featuring the Hong Kong diva Sandy Lam. In the exhibition DO YOU BELIEVE, at 3812 contemporary art space, he displayed the PAINFUL PORTRAITS series. After a hiatus, he has launched the photographic retrospective VISIONAIRE OF SENSES at the 2014 Hong Kong International Photo Festival. The exhibition features a collection of 100 photos tracing Lee’s career from celebrity photographer, through male nude studies, to meditative landscapes, and has launched the photo book HONG KONG PHOTOGRAPHERS 8: JULIAN LEE.

超然。感官

李志超敢性破格三十年回顧展

日期：2014.09.06 – 2014.09.30
時間：星期一至星期六中午12時至下午7時
地點：九龍塘達康路18 號邵逸夫創意媒體中心三樓
免費參觀

香港國際攝影節展覽節目之一

是次展覽的相片均出售，售賣所得將撥作李志超攝影獎學金。查詢：吳小姐 3442 7659

新書發佈：Hong Kong/China Photographers Eight : Julian Lee (出版: Asia One)暨開幕酒會

日期：2014.09.05
時間：下午6時
地點：九龍塘達康路18 號邵逸夫創意媒體中心三樓

 

由八十年代號外雜誌明星，呼之欲出末世調情，到九十年代愛慾、歐遊浪跡、陌生邂逅。由公元二千馨香男體到重病下追憶繁花，沉思風景，翻看著那堆由張藝謀扮三島由紀夫床照到骷髏陽具的發黃舊照，衝擊影像感官，恍惚重播著自己的一生。從前的每一次離開，總想著下次再回來，旅行如是，關係如是，人生也如是。如今，知名的傳媒人兼著名攝影師李志超驟然驚覺人生苦短，驀然回顧人生，追憶歲月，然後選擇率性面對自己，故將於9月6-30日假九龍塘達康路18 號邵逸夫創意媒體中心三樓舉辦一場敢性破格的三十年回顧展，來一場痛快的死亡預告盛宴。

當知名的傳媒人兼著名攝影師李志超自6年前罹患世間罕有的腹膜癌，就是那二百萬分之一的機率，在香港沒有醫生懂得施這項手術，但腫瘤怖滿腹腔，若要存活，他只有遠赴英國就醫，可惜手術不成功。然而，被頑疾折騰的他並沒有銳減他的生存意志，反而開始重新審視自己的人生歷程，選擇坦白面對自己，正視這些年來鬱結難解的心結。

人生最難行的一步 是回頭面對自己的過去 用眼睛看世界 用相片說故事

然而，對於一個已經面對好幾次死亡的病人來說，相信人生最難行的一步必定是回頭再看自己的過去……儘管是面對某些不堪回首的關係，或是面對家人的薄情不諒解，抑或是舊情人的飄忽態度；病後也再次拿起相機，執起筆，用不同的角度再看世界；無論是他的相片或是文字，也滲透著他毫不避忌的情慾描述，真實時事與虛幻想像匯合而成的故事背景。而他也毅然鼓起前所未有過的勇氣翻看著那七個外置記憶體重看過去旅行的照片。當憶起每張相片背後的故事，重溫每段往事的感覺，才驚覺原來自己已經走到人生這個階段，也早已把真實的感覺藏得很深。最近，他更積極籌備回顧相展，希望藉此回顧自己過去大半生的每一個階段，反思人生，啟發別人，用眼睛看世界，用相片說故事，瀟灑在人生旅途走一回。

透過文字、相片、電影以生命影響生命 為存活過的時代留下一點紀錄

去年初，李志超的病情非常嚴重，多次與死神擦身而過。他還輕鬆的笑著說︰「死亡? 我不害怕！因為我已經綵排了很多次了！只是希望離開前可以順利舉辦一個屬於自己的個人回顧相展，為這個我存活過的時代留下一點紀錄。」李志超對於時代和同性戀是如斯敏銳，他的相片中並未找到浮華的演繹，在每張樸實的相片背後，每個個體的生命都是如此鮮活，如此與時代的變化緊緊聯繫著。因此，他整理好發黃的舊相，全靠科技幫助修復這些年來的攝影作品。30年都過去了，重頭細閱自己的攝影作品，發現原來時代還未逝去，因此他積極透過文字、相片、電影以生命影響生命。

李志超首個個人攝影作品回顧展 Visionaire of Senses 超然。感官

首個屬於李志超的個人敢性破格回顧展，Visionaire of Senses 超然。感官，不難發現他的攝影作品均流露著他的豐富情感。展覽將分為五部份，分別是「Vanity Fair」、「Law of Desire」、「Flesh & Soul」、「My Vanitas」以及最後階段「Pantonemine」，將於9月6至30日假九龍塘達康路18 號邵逸夫創意媒體中心三樓展出他的創作系列，衝擊視覺官感。

「Vanity Fair」

第一章，關於gay sensibility，以獨有的觸覺於月刊號外展開擔任攝影師生涯，替不少演藝名人拍攝雜誌封面造型照，如張藝謀及劉德華等人，更曾參展香港國際攝影節。作品大多有別於傳統的攝影角度，提供了非一般的欣賞價值，帶領讀者遊走不同層面，尋找人訪背後的故事情節。

「Law of Desire」

第二章，紀錄大學年代的實驗性作品。相信當年的社會還未像現在思想開放，當時大家應該沒有想過同性戀也是人性最基本的慾念，絕對是一門影響深遠的學問。觀眾不僅能夠從相片中看到男性表情及動作的抑壓及傳統，反映當時社會對性仍然保守，因為衝擊守舊思維，令讀者反思性與慾。

「Flesh & Soul」

 第三章，關於宗教色彩，當時香港漸漸開始思想比較開放，因此以裸男的大膽題材挑戰藝術尺度。他曾經於2000年展出<<裸男結集>>，將那些雜亂、迷濛的角度都刺激着無限感官聯想，以場景佈局和氣氛彰顯各種人體美態。

「My Vanitas」

第四章，關於他的私人珍藏系列。患罕癌的李志超走到這階段，他將大部份心血和時間都放在拍戲和教育工作，攝影成為副業。他用天使、骷髏骨頭及裸男等形成對比，也令自己明白縱使生前有過太多喜歡的東西，但人死後都帶不走，故希望把珍貴的東西都留下來，把當下的心態及感覺都收進眼底變成相片。

「Pantonemine」

第五章，關於釋懷。他認為自己不知不覺走到人生的最後階段，已經把山水看開及人生看透，所以後期展出的作品想是表現出另一個時空，作品多數是捕捉霧景、雪景、山景等，均能夠讓他隨意穿梭時空go back in time。那些都是自己偷回來的時間其實並不屬於自己。雖然見證時代進步，人又比從前大膽開放，但其實走到最後又要回歸大自然；因此而慨嘆人生是如此美麗而短暫，捉不緊每個珍貴的時候就已經悄然離去，更來不及回顧這些美麗的回憶。

關於李志超

李志超現於香港城市大學創意媒體學院擔任教授攝影、電影及文字創作。曾為攝影師、作家和電影導演，在香港藝術家中別樹一格，以大膽破格見稱。李志超的寫作及小說及攝影創作最初見於香港的報章雜誌，如《東方日報》、《明報》、《星島日報》、《頭條日報》等。攝影主力在《號外》雜誌當編輯和訪問撰稿時，才華漸現，逐漸發掘自己在形象設計、美術指導、攝影觸覺和寫作的潛能。1988年留學英國修讀攝影，獲英國皇家藝術學院碩士學位。1991年，憑攝影作品獲European Eurocreation Program 獎，並接受邀請駐德國法蘭克福從事錄像藝術，開始朝向攝影和錄像製作方面的發展，攝影藝術作品在歐洲巡迴展出，攝影客戶包括著名的出版商如Jonathan Cape，Random Century，Harper Collins等。1997年回港，短暫結束浪遊歐洲達八年的藝術生活。2003年獲香港藝術發展局電影計畫獎，用極低的成本將小說《妖夜回廊》拍攝成獨立電影，吳彥祖憑該片獲金馬獎最佳男主角提名，惠英紅奪得華語電影傳媒大獎最佳女配角，李志超近年專注攝影，由2000年起，多次攝影展中，最注目是2010年香港攝影節中的男體影像 Suspending Torso懸體。2014年推出回顧展 Visionaire of Senses 超然。感官，同時出版入行三十年精選作品攝影集Hong Kong /China Photographer 8: Julian Lee