"The world is always changing. We have to look inside ourselves to find what stays the same, such as loyalty, our shared history and love for each other. In them, the truth of the past lives on."
Kurt Tong (b. 1977, Hong Kong) uses his Chinese heritage as inspiration. Beginning his career as a photojournalist in India, Tong quickly began working on more personal projects. His series include the public parks he played in as a child and the tradition of burning paper versions of personal objects for the dead to take with them into the afterlife. His projects, such as ‘The Queen, The Chairman and I’ have been exhibited over many continents and he has won numerous awards, including the Jerwood Photography Award (2008). Much of Tong's recent work while remaining photographic, has moved towards sculpture and installation. His new series ‘Combing for Ice and Jade’ was exhibited at Recontres d'Arles in 2019.
As a result of winning the Prix Elysee in 2021, Kurt published ’Dear Franklin’ with Atelier EXB. Playing the roles of photographer, archivist, poet, novelist and historian, the epistolary novel immerses the readers in the tragic love story between a Chinese general’s daughter and an ambitious man from the British concession during WWII in China. Their exchanges of letters and photographs mixed with Chinese, Japanese and American media, intertwining personal and historical narratives. The work has since been shortlisted for the Asian Sovereign Art Prize and exhibited as an immersive installation at Tai Kwun Contemporary Museum in Hong Kong. The book was also chosen as one of the top 10 photo books of 2022 by MOMA in New York.
In his latest project 'KRAMPUS' Kurt Tong travelled to Tyrol, Austria. Following in the footsteps of Krampus and Santa Claus with his camera, Tong explores the constant dance between light and darkness, good and evil. Immersed in this region in the Alps which is steeped in tradition, Tong deals with folklore, rituals and strategies of memory. His work moves between fiction and document, staging and meticulous historical research.
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