The scenes speak for themselves.
Leica M3, 50mm Summicron Rigid, Tri-X
Beach Meditations
Tag: Ma On Shan
Many Hong Kongs
These are images taken with the same camera (Minolta AF-C), with a single roll (Fuji Neopan 400CN), over a week or two.
There’re just so many environments, and so many stories waiting to be told.
There’s the early riser.
The joy of a youthful busker.
The necessities of life: public laundry.
There’s discipline and teamwork.
Political consciousness.
Work.
And work.
(For collectors: open edition prints from this post are available here.)
Tranquillity
We all need to walk.
I have done this walk so many times now, that some of these images are lodged in my mind.
We all know how our external environments organize our internal state.
In a crowded shopping mall, we’re all a bit tense.
Look at water and we relax.
We all need a depository of homely images in our mind.
So we feel at home even outside of home.
There’s a story of a family here waiting to be told.
Just a little narrative.
A little space.
A scattering of things telling us who we are.
Just a little window to the world. A little insight.
A safe harbor.
And we’re home.
Slow Day
The usual media depiction of Hong Kong revolves around skyscrapers, the Peak, and the excellent dim sum, of course.
But there is also another pace of life which you can see on weekends.
All photographs are taken at Ma On Shan, New Territories.
You’ll see people cycling, fishing and taking leisurely walks.
There are fast-paced days and there are slow-paced days.
Today, we’ll go slow.
The cycling route can be rather scenic.
There’s an often-mentioned creative writing strategy: when writing a poem about love, never use the word “love”.
This entry is about cycling with my son, without photographs of us cycling.
You can see our bikes in the background though.
At moments like this, we slip into another time. You’ll see people enjoying being alone, in their own space-time bubbles.
This is the bike shop we go to when there’s something to the bikes I can’t fix. They’re really friendly and will actually tell me I don’t need that pair of fancy bike gloves when a generic one would do as well.
My cynical self would think about the way they are setting up their profit margins. But they sometimes do minor repairs and maintenance for free as well.
The boss will just tell you it’s free of charge and please buy your next bicycle from him.
She was shielding her eyes from the sun, so naturally I brought my camera to my eye.
That’s at the end of Wu Kai Sha beach. You’ll see quite a number of village houses.
An open door.
You could see the contrast between village life and high rise living here.
Hong Kong is a city of sharp juxtapositions.
Thanks for reading!
near Ma On Shan Park again
This was overexposed and I dismissed it at first.
Funny how mistakes turn out to be wonderfully intriguing in hindsight.
near Ma On Shan Central Park
Adjacent to Ma On Shan Central Park, facing Tolo Harbour, is a homely stretch.
On a leisurely weekend, you’ll find joggers, sunrise/sunset photographers and people simply out for a walk.
I’ve underexposed these shots, and realized one could transform the homely and familiar into something uncanny, slightly gothic and perhaps even frightening.
I think it has to do with seeing and not being able to see. Simply by playing with light, one could change things.
That is why I think street photography is about “capturing” as much as constructing and playing with reality.
Boo!
Hong Kong Lucida 