我是一个很无聊的人，没什么特别的兴趣。除非有好的地方不然就喜欢在家呆着。我喜欢很多东西但是很多最后也觉得没有意思。有时候出去跳舞喝酒，跳完喝完了也不就那样。

 

裸体就是裸体，每个人每天都会见到，我其实并没有什么想法。我也并不是专门要拍裸体，只是觉得是一个我们每天会见到的东西所以我就拍它。

 

－我一直在国内艺术创作。在国内拍照的时候有被抓过，展览被封杀，网站被关闭。这种事情太常发生了，我已经觉得无所谓了。我现在很小心，比如现在我上传地照片都不会太暴露。但是其实外国媒体有时候误解我了。我其实不太在乎他们封杀我，因为不是每时每刻都有一个人在限制我的行动，所以对我的影响不是很大。也许有时候当下我是气愤的，但是过去就过去了，归根究底我还是热爱中国的。

 

 

－男女的性器官对我来说都一样，在拍照的时候就是身体的一部分。但是我觉得男性的性器官不勃起的话就像不存在一样。萎缩的阴茎时候说白了就是丑。

 

－我都是随便想的。很多时候我跟别人合作的时候我的想法都被认为是不可能的。但我会坚持一下，我会说为什么我们不尝试一下呢？往往最后我尝试出来后它是可能的。因为在打架固有的观念里你想到一个你不常见，不常用或不常接触的东西的时候人们就觉得它太遥不可及。但是如果你真的去做的话没那么难。比如我接下来想要租大象或狮子，找了一圈发现还是找得到的。有时候只要有钱就能行。所以我觉得只要存在的东西都可以拍到。所以跟我合作过的人都知道只要我想拍什么他们都会努力去帮我一起尝试。

 

-比较多用朋友，不过现在越来越多都是陌生人了。而我选模特唯一的标准就是觉得他好看，但是当然这是非常主观的。这种感觉我也解释不清楚，但是我总是无论如何都要坚持用自己喜欢的模特。有一次拍摄，造型师给我发了将近50个模特全都被我否定了，最后好不容易才选了两个。他一直问我我到底要什么样的，我说我也不知道，但你得继续帮我照，弄得最后造型师都发火了哈哈。

 

－我从08年开始拍照。刚开始的时候我什么都拍，但是大家最关注最受捧的就是我拍裸体的系列。虽然国内阻挡我的势力是存在的但是也一直有人愿意帮我做展览。

 

因为我不会做后期呀哈哈（开玩笑）。我觉得胶片的颜色和质感比较好，而且我觉得一个照片最好的状态应该就是你拍的时候。它是一个很直接的行为，如果拍完之后你再去做很多的东西的话它可能就不叫照片了，而应该叫图片，或者综合材料艺术品。如果它要被称为一张照片的话就是应该以最原始的方式去拍摄和呈现。这种冲动应该是最原始的，行为应该是最基本的，我认为如果赋予它太多其他的东西它就变味了。

 

没什么，我只是拍的时候自己开心。可能很多时候照片不好看但是我享受了那个过程就够了。我没觉得我的照片一定要被放在一个很大的主题或文化背景下去起到一个什么作用。我的照片只是让我自己高兴的一个东西，这和去跳舞，或者吃一个好吃的东西是一样的。每个人做很多事情，比如把照片发到社交网络上获得别人的赞赏，那种虚荣感都是一样的，都是一种很自私的行为，只为了让自己开心和感觉舒服。

 

中国。我最熟悉。外国也好，任何一个其他的国家我都可以去住一段时间，可是感觉总是不一样。

 

我的家庭就是很普通的上班族，父母没有离异。我一直认为他们都不知道我在做什么，但是上次我回家乡拍我妈的时候，我给她打了个电话，她干脆的就答应了，说“你是要我裸体吧？”她那天拍的时候很配合，一天下来很累，最后她说“就是因为是你我才会做这些动作。”我们那次合作很自然，但是我们还是从来没有谈论过我的工作。

 

很多人会给我写邮件，或者直接有朋友问我。不过我现在在做一个项目，就是我会拍下每一个我遇见的人，最后做一个有几万张脸的立体的空间。

 

-不算秘密吧。我小时候觉得我会当老师。因为我想要勾引我的学生。我一直到高中以前都不能理解为什么学生会喜欢老师，我只能理解老是喜欢学生。因为我之前觉得老师已经什么都成熟了，所以他们会喜欢学生这样一个新鲜的，嫩的东西。但是从学生的角度来讲我会觉得他怎么会喜欢一个老旧的人。直到上大学的时候我喜欢上过一个教传播学的老师，长得很丑很矮，但是他上什么课我都会去。我喜欢很激进的人，这个老师很特别。他第一节课来的时候就把窗帘都拉上，说我们没什么好讲的，拿着书和笔随便画一画就说“看电影吧！”，就开始放比较敏感的纪录片。

 

 

 

  Flesh, corpses, souls and bland flashlights, all composite into seconds or milliseconds of lights and shadows, projecting onto the film that never knows how to lie. Focus gathering and the shutter releasing, connecting his unpretentious, rebellious, wild and free perspectives towards the naked human body. The images look so natural, yet fun and unexpected. One soul after another all blossom like a newborn baby, urging to crawl out of his mother’s womb, dying to be redefined.

 

 

I think I am quite a boring person without any interesting hobbies. Unless there is something worth doing, I would rather stay at home. But I do like a lot of things. Often, after doing things I love, like dancing, eating and drinking, at the end of the night nothing changes and it all feels empty in the end.

 

Nudity is nudity. We see it every single day. To be honest I do not have any special opinions about it. I do intend to only shoot nudity.

 

I always work in China, and yes, I have been arrested, I have had exhibitions being forced to close, our website getting banned, etc. It happens too often that I do not even care any more. I am being more cautious nowadays, for example, not posting full frontal nudity online. But sometimes, foreign media misunderstands me, and they love asking questions like this, but I really don’t mind it too much. Overall, it is not that somebody is constantly monitoring my behaviors, so it does not affect me a lot. Perhaps I get mad in the moment, but what has past is past. At the end of the day I still love China.

 

  Ren Hang continues to stress the fact that he is “boring”. Especially when asked about those basic questions of his inspirational origins and meanings behind the photos, he always just smiles naively, shakes his shoulders and says, “I don’t really know. I never really thought about it.” Perhaps he is such a paver, heading towards the direction of happiness and creative freedom without realizing the pathways he has left behind. You might find him confusing and puzzling, but he has the ambience of such kindness that you would always trust that no evil can come out from him. He is merely a pure form of naked human beings.

 

To me they are both the same. When I am shooting, it is just a body part. But to me if a penis is not erected, it is as if it does not exist. A shrinking penis is ugly in my opinion.

 

I always just think randomly. A lot of the times the team I work with think that my ideas or the things I need to find are unpractical and undoable. But I always insist it for a while, and the truth is, often it works out fine in the end. Because normally in people’s preconsciousness, anything that we do not see, use or are not in contact with regularly would be easily defined as impossible to find or too far to reach. But once you put your hands on it, you would realize that it is actually not that difficult. For example, for the next project I want to shoot elephants or lions, and after looking out to some people it has been proven to be do-able. And sometimes it is simply the question of money. In my opinion, I should be able to shoot anything that exists in the world.

 

Do you normally prefer to use friends of yours to shoot? Many people who have worked with you know that you are quite picky with choosing the right model. Why is that?

Yes, I mostly shoot people I know. But recently I am shooting more and more strangers or models. And my only standard is that he or she has to be good looking to me, which is very straightforward and, of course, really subjective as well. It is a feeling that people give me and I cannot put it into words. But no matter what I always insist on using models I like. Once before a photo shoot, the stylist gave me nearly 50 models to choose from and I rejected them all. Eventually I tried my best and chose two. He kept asking what exactly I am looking for but I could not explain it to him, so I just told him to continue searching for me. Eventually he was a bit angry with me, haha.

 

Could you tell us how you developed your career?

I started shooting in 2008 and I basically shot every sort of topic and style at the beginning. But since most people paid attention to my nude series, I got more and more into that. Even though there is a strong resistance in Mainland China, there are still a lot of people who are willing to exhibit for me.

 

Why do you insist on shooting with film cameras?

Because I do not know how to do post productions! Just kidding, haha. I just think that the outcome of film photography is much nicer in terms of quality, texture and color. Plus I think the best state of a photo should be the moment you shot it. It should be a very direct and straightforward behavior. If you add a lot of post-production into it, it should be called a picture or a mixed-materials artwork, instead of a photo.

 

Do you intend to convey any sort of messages to the public with your photos?

Not really. I just want to make myself happy. Perhaps sometimes the photos might not come out well, but at least I enjoyed the process of creating it, and that is quite enough. I do not think that my photos shall be put underneath a cultural mass or a theme to be put to use for something. Taking photos is just one of my interests that makes me happy, like dancing, eating or drinking. Many times people do things, like posting images on social media, simply as an act to get appreciated and complimented by others. This sort of superficiality is universal; it is selfish in the sense that it makes us happy and comfortable.

 

What is your favorite place?

China. I am most familiar with my home country. Even though other countries are nice, and I could live in any of them for a period of time, but at the end of the day it still doesn’t feel the same.

 

How does your family view the art you make?

My family is very average middle class workers and my parents are not divorced. I always thought they had no idea what I do for a living. But last time when I wanted to shoot with my mother back home, she naturally accepted and asked me directly if she needs to be naked. On the day of the shoot, she was very cooperative and exhausted herself out. “If it is not for you, I would never do this," she said. It was a very comfortable and natural shoot, but we still never talk about my work.

 

How do you find nude models to work with you?

A lot of people write emails to me, or some of my friends ask me directly. But I am working on a project right now that I shoot every single person I encounter in my life, and eventually composing a multi-dimensional space with hundreds of thousands of faces.

 

Do you have any personal secrets to share with us?

I would not say it is a secret, but I always thought that I would end up being a teacher and seduce my students. Up until high school, I could not understand why some students would have a crush on the teacher. Because I imaged that a teacher is already matured, so they would prefer something young and fresh. But why would a student like someone old and boring? I had a crush on a professor who teaches media in university who was really short and ugly. But I have never missed a class of the teacher. I prefer people who are politically active and progressive, and on the first class, the teacher closed the curtains, shut the doors, and started playing politically sensitive movies in China. I thought it was so cool.

 

For now, what are your future plans?

I want to create a magazine called “Gongji”, literally translated as cock, the animal. But it does not have an English name. The first issue, I would like to have all images of one face and one genital per page. The second issue would probably be in the form of a tape, with casual interviews that feels like a daily conversation and eventually touch up on their sexual experiences. I plan on releasing the first issue by the end of next year.