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Oi Ling is pleased to announce the upcoming photography exhibition of Paul Cox, “Red Hero IV,” to be held from March 22 to April 7, 2019. The opening night, March 22, will also be the launch of his photo book, “Red Hero."
The photographic works in this exhibition are captured from Paul’s time in Mongolia— a place and whose people he has grown to love deeply. “Red Hero” is the literal meaning of the word “Ulaanbaatar,” the Mongolian capital city. Ulaanbaatar is a tough city to live in—it is the coldest capital city in the world, with winter temperatures easily dropping below -35 degrees celcius—and part of Paul’s admiration for the Mongolian people is their grit in the face of harsh living conditions.
When one looks at the series of photos in “Red Hero IV,” they are struck by their honest quality. The photos are without a staged agenda, nor forced, and their brilliance comes from letting the subject matter show in its genuine context. This genuine context is something that Paul has had to work hard and patiently at: “the people in the country are usually quite open from the beginning, compared to those who live in the city, who seem to need more time to warm up enough to allow me into their home, but once they do, you discover that warmth, but you have to go digging for it.” His care to be respectful of people’s spaces has even determined his choice of equipment, and he has chosen a smaller camera model—a Leica—to help him blend in. Paul says, “I never use flash, for these methods are intrusive and can change the dynamics.” This concern to make his subject matters comfortable show in the photos—to the point where one can feel like a voyeur of what otherwise would surely be private moments. Yet at the same time, we can’t help but feel privileged to be allowed to look.
The exhibition will represent the fourth Red Hero fund raising event, where part of the proceeds, and all the proceeds of his book, will go to Tsolmon Ireedui Foundation (TIF), a small charity registered in Hong Kong and based in Ulaanbaatar. The charity runs a day-care center that provides vital help to many of the poorest families who would otherwise struggle to care for their young children. For many of these children, their parents struggle with long hours of working for a living, or conversely, unemployment (according to the World Bank 62% of the population in Ulaanbaatar is unemployed), or alcoholism.
Without help, these children would be left unattended—even hungry, thirsty, and cold—for hours on end. Paul has been intimately linked to TIF’s cause for many years, and considers it his privilege to be able to continue to support it.
Exhibition details:
Dates: March 22-April 7, 2019
Opening Night: March 22, 7pm
Venue: Oi Ling, 72 Hollywood Road, Central, Hong Kong
Contact: Oi Ling Chiang, oiling@oilingantiques.com
Edited on 21 Mar, 2019
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