Nancy Sheung

Nancy Sheung was born Sheung Wai-chun in Suzhou, China, in 1914. She told her husband and family that she paid for her education by working in an opium den, and she rode a horse to school with a shotgun for safety; her family has stated that these stories should be taken with a grain of salt.^[1]

Sheung married merchant Pong Kuan-Wah in the mid-1930s. Together they moved to Hong Kong, where they had six children. Sheung founded and ran a construction company, sometimes acting as the family's primary breadwinner.^[1] In the late 1950s, the construction industry slowed down due to a sluggish economy, giving Sheung more time to focus on her photography.^[2]

After attending a European photography exhibit in the 1950s, Sheung became interested in photography in her 40s. She purchased her first camera, a Rolleiflex, and apprenticed to Michael Leung, a prominent local photographer.^[2] She joined the Photographic Society of Hong Kong in 1965, becoming its vice-president in the 1970s.^[3]

Sheung is known as one of the few female photographers of Hong Kong in the 1960s and 1970s; most of her contemporaries were men.^[3] She is also known for her use of dynamic, bold lines; portraits of women; architectural eye; and images of life in Hong Kong. Some of her most notable works include portraits of her daughter(s): The Pigtail,^[i] The Long-Haired Girl^[ii] and Staircase.^[iii] Other interesting works include Zigzag,^[iv] Under the Cross,^[v] The Shadows,^[vi] and Drum Yard.^[vii]

Sheung died of a heart attack in her darkroom in 1979.^[1]