The dozens of portraits have been taken in the photo-booths of the Berlin subway. In each 'Foto-Fix', de Brest is the subject, disguised as a spectrum of characters, both real and invented. He is the scowling rap star Eminem. He is a Star Wars Stormtrooper, Kurt Cobain and Hitler's son.

For the Hong Kong show, he is in drag as a Chinese woman. He decorated the background with elaborate designs and each has a witty title, commenting on the people and the trends of popular culture.

'Using booths is the simplest way to get the photo. I don't need to work with models, I can do it when I want and I have no frontiers,' says de Brest, who claims not to have seen the quirky French film Amelie with its photobooth subplot.

'I've been asked that before. Maybe I should watch it,' he says with a chuckle. 'No, I took my first Foto-Fix when I was two. My mother started taking photographs in photo booths in the 1960s. She took about 100 a year. Every time she had a haircut she would take a photo of herself.'

De Brest took over the family habit in his teens. By 1994, he had developed the concept of the Foto-Fix series to document his personal experiences. 'I needed to express myself more - I am a collector of events,' he says. 'And this began as a diary, a personal diary and about the time I live in.'

The Frankfurter Allegmeine Zeitung newspaper has deemed it the 'photo album of his generation'.

De Brest recommends this show as a good introduction to his work. Once you have seen the diary, you can then embark on his novel, which hangs in the Goethe-Gallery. 'The two shows are totally opposite,' he explains. 'Vladracul goes much deeper and maybe needs a little more time to understand.'

It is an enormous project that took two years to prepare, four years to shoot and four years to develop. The modern-day allegorical spin on Bram Stroker's Dracula takes the form of a photo-novel and offers a retrospective of Germany in the 20th century.

In the 14th-floor space of the Arts Centre, it looks like an art-house film has been frozen into stills and splashed over the walls. De Brest has engineered this project like a film producer would: using actors (his friends and some of Berlin's more bohemian characters), make-up artists and costume designers and shot on locations from Berlin's techno clubs to former communist factories and concentration camps in Poland. Told in 12 chapters (with written explanations at the start of each chapter) it follows Berlin real-estate broker Jonathan Harker who travels to Poland for a business deal with Duke Vladracul. He ends up at the Duke's home, Auschwitz.

We pause here. There is a dusty room of endless bunk beds with the words Sauberkeit ist gesundheit ('Cleanliness is health') inscribed, sickeningly, on a wooden beam. In another shot, De Brest's camera picks up a vivid blue sky and an entrance gate that looks like a scene from a Western: Duke Vladracul looks exceptionally evil leaning against it.

De Brest explains that the vampire is representative of dictatorship: 'He could be Hitler, Stalin or Saddam Hussein. He is not interested in the blood, he's interested in the energy of the people.'

After sucking the energy from Harker, Duke Vladracul heads to Berlin to hunt down Harker's wife. The tale moves through Berlin's Love Parade street festival, Jewish cemeteries, rooftops and lavish bars. There are moments of comedy contrasting with disturbing rape scenes. The layers of reference are endless. 'As well as the political tale, it's full of homage to film people, film stars, film scenes,' explains the artist, pointing to a shot inspired by David Lynch's Blue Velvet.

This is the second time the photo-novel has been exhibited in its entirety. It has been shown in fragments in Berlin, and was well received at last year's debut show in Los Angeles. Rock stars flocked to the show, including Courtney Love, who bought one of the more shocking images.

And with 15,000 photos to choose from, and just 220 exhibited in Hong Kong, it will be an exhibition to follow in the future. 'It is like a director's cut,' says de Brest. 'I use different images and different scenes each time I show the exhibition.'

Vladracul, Goethe-Gallery, Goethe-Institut, 14/F, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Wan Chai. Mon-Fri, 10am-8pm; Sat, 2pm-6pm. Ends Feb 17. The Foto-Fix-World of Johnny de Brest, Volkswagen Fotogalerie, Fringe Club, 2 Lower Albert Road, Central. Ends Jan 23. Inquiries: 2802 0088