Picturing Asia: Double Take – The Photography of Brian Brake and Steve McCurry

To commemorate the 60th anniversary of Asia Society, the Hong Kong Center presents Picturing Asia: Double Take – The Photography of Brian Brake and Steve McCurry, the first exhibition in Hong Kong to feature the work of two most eminent documentary photographers – Brian Brake (1927 – 1988) and Steve McCurry (1950 – ). Asia Society was established by John D. Rockefeller the 3rd in 1956, a few years before New Zealand-born Brian Brake became the only “Western” photographer allowed in the People’s Republic of China to document its 10th anniversary. His extensive body of work has inspired many spectators and next-generation journalists alike, including the internationally-acclaimed Steve McCurry, who is best known for his iconic image of the Afghan refugee girl Sharbat Gula.

Picturing Asia: Double Take sheds light on Brake and McCurry’s common passion in capturing the many facets of Asia. In 1961, when an eleven-year-old McCurry saw Brake’s celebrated photo essay of the Indian monsoon, a flame was kindled which eventually compelled him to document the same enigmatic climatic phenomenon twenty years later. Their monsoon photographs form a dialogue from which this exhibition starts. Showcasing over ninety works, the exhibition traces Brake and McCurry’s effort in giving the West glimpses of the East – of China, Japan, India, and beyond. “Picturing” in the title proposes a double meaning – of taking a picture, and of imagining one.

Picturing Asia: Double Take is supported by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Te Papa gratefully acknowledges the gift of the Brian Brake Collection by Wai-man Lau.

The exhibition is curated by Ian Wedde, a New Zealand curator and art critic who was the Head of Art and Visual Culture at New Zealand’s National Museum, Te Papa Tongarewa, from 1994 to 2004. Ashley Nga-sai Wu and Kristy Kwan-yi Soo of Asia Society Hong Kong Center are the Assistant Curators.

(Exhibition dates are tentative.)