A photography exhibition casts new light on the meaning of family
Vanessa Yung
What constitutes a family? This Hong Kong Photographic Culture Association exhibition has some surprising answers to that question.
"We're trying to prompt the audience to ponder whether we should define family as we always have. Does it take a father, mother and child to make a family, or can it be broader and include single parents or homosexual lovers?" asks Bobby Sham Ka-ho, who co-curated the show with fellow photographer Blues Wong Kai-yu.
"We gave the artists a lot of freedom. Their unique explorations and presentations of the theme give rise to works that encompass an interesting diversity," adds Wong.
Part of the Hong Kong International Photo Festival Flare, the show was initially put together as a social service in collaboration with Fujifilm to help low-income families who could not afford quality family portraits. But the project evolved into a group exhibition of 12 collections by 14 photographers of 300 local "families".
Photographer Chan Hau-chun has brought the homeless into the picture for this group show. A student at City University's School of Creative Media, and a documentary maker, Chan is the youngest artist. Each of her images consists of a homeless person and a drawing they have done of their family. The drawings range from a big question mark, to faces of long-lost family members, to a cross drawn by a tattooed Christian to represent heaven.
Other artists include Vincent Yu Wai-kin, who used framed, black-and-white panoramic works to capture the relationship and close bonds between martial arts masters and their students.
Some photographers offer a more traditional take on family portraits. Leong Ka-tai's images - conventional portraits depicting large families - are shown on fridges dotted around the venue, which was a common way to display photos in the past, says Leong. It contrasts with Vincent Mak Siu-fung's fun photo-within-photo series, which explores how we have recorded and displayed our images over the years, especially since the digital era.
Roy Lee's dreamy images of his artist friends' families, tweaked with colour desaturation to mimic old photos and each displayed with a glowing light bulb above, add an artistic element to the show.
By contrast, Rambo and Lorraine Lai's colourful images give an intimate, insider glimpse into the lives of Lamma Island residents. The couple had so much fun working on the show, they plan to venture beyond Lamma Island to include families from other islands, such as Cheung Chau and Peng Chau.
Hong Kong Design Institute, 3 King Ling Road, Tseung Kwan O, Tuesday-Sunday, 10am-8pm. Ends Nov 3. Inquiries: 2777 0955
