**This book contains sexual imagery and is not appropriate for minors**

The TASCHEN monograph Ren Hang brings together over three hundred photographs from the short but remarkably influential career of Chinese photographer Ren Hang. Shot primarily between 2009 and 2016, the book traces the visual language that made Hang one of the most distinctive image-makers of his generation.

Working with a simple point-and-shoot camera and photographing almost exclusively his friends, Hang created surreal, humorous, and often provocative images that explore the body as both form and symbol. His photographs place nude figures in unexpected arrangements — limbs intertwined with plants, animals, and everyday objects — creating compositions that feel playful, strange, and quietly poetic.

Despite their directness, Hang’s images are rarely about shock alone. They reflect a broader emotional landscape: desire, loneliness, youth, and the freedom of self-expression within a society where sexuality and individuality are often heavily policed.

The result is a body of work that feels spontaneous yet carefully composed — photographs that are bold, irreverent, and unmistakably their own.

**This book contains sexual imagery and is not appropriate for minors**

Artist: Ren Hang

Editor: Dian Hanson

Publisher: TASCHEN

Format: Hardcover

Dimensions: approx. 9 × 12 inches (22.5 × 30 cm)

Page Count: 311–312 pages

Printing: Full-color reproductions throughout

Language: English

Release Year: 2017

**This book contains sexual imagery and is not appropriate for minors**

Ren Hang’s photographs feel immediate — like they happened five minutes before the shutter clicked.

There’s very little distance between photographer and subject here. Most of the people in these images were Hang’s friends, photographed in apartments, rooftops, parks, and empty corners of the city. The camera is simple, the lighting is often just direct flash, and the compositions rely on instinct more than elaborate setups.

What makes the work memorable is how easily the photographs move between humor and tension. Bodies stack, bend, hide behind plants, or stretch across the frame in ways that feel both absurd and strangely elegant.

For photographers, it’s a reminder that strong work doesn’t always come from complicated gear or locations. Sometimes it comes from curiosity, trust between friends, and the willingness to push an image just a little further than expected.