Hou Bo

Hou's photo taken October 1, 1949.

Hou Bo 侯波 (born 1924) is a Chinese photographer. She and her husband Xu Xiaobing 徐肖冰 (born 1916) were the official photographers of Mao Zedong 毛泽东 (1893–1976). She joined the Chinese Communist Party at 14 and spent seven years in Yan'an, where she became the photographer of the top leadership. Her photo of Mao and the new leaders on October 1, 1949, proclaiming the founding of the Peoples Republic of China is one of the most widely distributed photographs of modern times, but she also took less formal pictures of the leadership. During the Cultural Revolution, Hou was attacked by Jiang Qing. "She said I was a fake communist, because I had joined when I was 14 even though the official age was 18," she said in a 2009 interview. "And she said the fact I had photographed disgraced figures like Liu Shaoqi meant I was definitely a counterrevolutionary. I hate her, but she did what she believed in."^[1]

In recent years, she and her husband received recognition outside China. They were the subjects of a documentary film, Hou Bo et Xu Xiaobing, photographes de Mao (Claude Hudelot et Jean-Michel Vecchiet, 2003, 52 mins), and an exhibition of photographs of Mao taken by Hou and Xu Xiaobing was presented at the Photographers' Gallery, London, 8 April - 30 May 2004.^[2] She, with Xu Xiaobing and Lu Houmin, have been considered the best photographers of Mao.^[3]

Notes

1. Clifford Coonan, "Snapshots from Mao's Comrade in Revolution," The Independent, October 1, 2009
2. Hou Bo & Xu Xiaobing Mao's Photographers
3. "Chairman Mao by photographer Lv Hou-min". PHOTO INTER. 5 September 2013.