Nancy Sheung

Nancy Sheung (; Oct. 10, 1915–Jan. 17, 1979) was a Hong Kong photographer known for her bold lines and frequent focus on female subjects. She was most active in the 1960s and 1970s.

Early life Nancy Sheung was born Sheung Wai-chun in Suzhou, China, in 1914 or 1915. 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.

Personal life 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, Wai Foong Construction, sometimes acting as the family's primary breadwinner.

Photography career 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.

Sheung is known as one of the few female photographers of Hong Kong in the 1960s and 1970s; most of her contemporaries were men. "Rare Encounters: Nancy Sheung's Portraits of Women in the 1960s" at Lumenvisum in March 2015. Exhibited at St Hugh's College, Oxford, in the Hamlin Gallery, from 15 October to 15 November, 2015.

Death Sheung died of a heart attack in her darkroom in 1979.