You take a step back. You lean in close. You tilt your head and squint.
Such mild forms of calisthenics are in order for the photographs to divulge the full extent of their subtle visual clues and semantic nuances.
The pictorial at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum's 'City Flaneur: Social Documentary Photography' exhibition - 260 in all - are exquisite, insinuating works that convey layers of meaning beyond what meets the eye at a single cursory glance.
Spanning half a century since the 1950's, the exhibits chronicle Hong Kong's urban and social transformation through the eyes - and optic lenses - of the city's most accomplished photographers.
Some of the photographs on display portray the familiar in-brand new lights in a re-examination of Hong Kong's urban landscape with its quintessential qualities and quaint eccentricities.
'Megafauna' (2009), by Dick Chan Kwong-yuen, for one, depicts unsightly modern high-rises, towering over four-storey homes.