In 1962, Frank Horvat was commissioned by the German magazine Revue to team up with writer Dieter Lattmann to create a number of features on major cities around the world. The duo arrived late that year for a stay in Hong Kong, which had been seeing a massive influx of new immigrants from China over a decade.

Horvat was fascinated to discover a dense city laid out vertically, packed with people, dwellings, objects, and symbols, where empty space was unimaginable. It perfectly suited the photographer’s style because he liked to compose his images in black and white, filling the frame with his subjects. As a large part of the commissioned work was not included in the published article, most of the images appearing in this exhibition have never been seen before. This is also the first time the Hong Kong Dream exhibition of Frank Horvat is shown in Asia. 

A talk with Fiammetta Horvat, moderated by Vanessa Franklin:

Frank Horvat

Born in Italy in 1928, Frank Horvat grew up in Switzerland. He made his way to Paris in 1951, where he met Henri Cartier-Bresson, one of the founders of Magnum Photos, whose influence would be decisive for him. Horvat settled in Paris in 1955 and rapidly gained recognition through his photographs taken with a telephoto lens and his interest in capturing nightlife scenes in the French capital. His sharp journalist’s eye would serve him well for his fashion images, featured in publications such as Jardin des Modes, British Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. Favouring shots taken in the streets, he brought a freshness and vitality to fashion photography, thus playing a key role in its revival.

After his round-the-world trip for Revue in 1962 and 1963, Horvat rarely worked again as a photojournalist. Beginning in the 1970s, he turned his attentions to more personal work, with each project giving rise to a book or an exhibition. He died in Paris on 21 October 2020.

Horvat’s work has been the subject of many retrospective exhibitions, the most recent of which was presented in 2023 at the Jeu de Paume in Paris.

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