Ren Hang

Book Review

Publisher: dienacht Publishing

Specs: Half slipcase, 15 x 24 cm, 96 pages

Price: €35

Ren Hang’s work defies the conventions of both life and photography in a way that feels more like an existential plunge into the unknown. Ren Hang at Work by Peter Coeln (b. 1954, Austria), published a decade after the artist’s Wild photobook, presents a raw and hauntingly intimate portrayal of the artist at work.

Hang and Coeln met each other on the occasion of the artist’s largest solo show on March 18, 2015, at OstLicht, the Photo Gallery in Vienna. Apart from organizing this show, Coeln also assisted him with a shoot that he wanted to make in the city. Out of a hundred responses to the model open call on social media, Hang chose three—two Chinese men and one woman. For his location, he picked to work in a forest and at a small river closeby to the city. When Coeln was asked to accompany the photographer on his shoot, he was surprised as he knew that Hang never accepted being photographed when at work. Coeln became the “fly on the wall” during this shoot and captured over 300 backstage photographs which served as the basis for this photobook.

“(…) there’s a quiet dignity in this exposure, a reminder that the process of creating is, itself, a form of self-dissection.“

Ren Hang, a figure whose work straddles the surreal and the visceral, is exposed here in a way that feels almost as vulnerable as the nudes he so famously photographed. Yet, there’s a quiet dignity in this exposure, a reminder that the process of creating is, itself, a form of self-dissection. We’ve often only seen the finality of Ren Hang’s images, but Coeln’s lens gifts us something rawer, perhaps more real: Ren Hang, the artist in the process of making.

The book’s structure, with its open thread stitching and foil embossing, mirrors this fragility. We are forced to peel back layers—folds of paper, intimate snapshots—to get closer to understanding the enigma of an artist who danced on the edge of sanity and madness. The forest, where many of the photos in this book were taken, becomes a living metaphor for that abyss. Nature here isn’t a backdrop but a symbol of resurrection, as Voltaire once proclaimed, “It is not more surprising to be born twice than once; everything in nature is resurrection.” Through Coeln’s camera, Ren Hang’s brief fragments of life in Vienna are reborn—his laughter, his sadness, the naked bodies contorted against the backdrop of the Wienerwald, all conjure up a world that feels simultaneously liberated and suffocated.

“Coeln transcends mere witnessing—he is the silent facilitator, the invisible echo Ren Hang may have sought.”

What’s most profound about this book, though, is the tension it captures. Ren Hang, like his photographs, was a paradox—a figure who found beauty in the grotesque, playfulness in despair. His depression shadowed him, and this collection of images, taken just two years before he ended his life, is haunted by this knowledge. His quote from Journal of Depression, “I just throw a stone into the dark everyday. I have never received any echo. If life is a bottomless abyss, then when I fling myself, the endless fall is also a kind of flying,” rings through the pages like a tragic prophecy. Coeln’s book is, therefore, more than just a documentation of Ren Hang’s process. Instead, I see it also as a resurrection of his presence. Coeln then transcends mere witnessing—he is the silent facilitator, the invisible echo Ren Hang may have sought.

In the end, Ren Hang at Work by Peter Coeln feels less like a photobook and more like a eulogy, an unfinished conversation between an artist and the world he struggled to reconcile. It’s a collection that reminds us of the deep existential cost of living authentically in a world that often demands conformity. Coeln, in capturing these moments, allows us to witness Ren Hang as we’ve never seen him before—whole, fragile, and fleeting, like life itself.

Ren Hang at Work is available for purchase via dienacht Publishing here.

Peter Coeln

is a Viennna-based photographer, collector and, among others, founder of photography museum WestLicht and OstLicht.

dienacht Publishing

was founded by photographer and curator Calin Kruse and was later joined by editor and curator Yana Kruse. dienacht consists of a magazine, independent publishing house and a workshop lab focusing on strong and timeless photography. Through their educational platform, they additionally provide coaching sessions focused on photobook production and curation.

Text by Linda Zhengová

Curator of Discarded Magazine & XXX

She is a photographer and writer dealing with the topics of trauma, gender and sexuality.