IT looks like a derelict backyard with crumbling walls covered with ivy. It is in fact the interior of an old Chinese village house tucked away in Shalotung, situated in the countryside above Tai Po beneath the peaks known as the Eight Immortals.
Further down the narrow village street the wooden front doors of another abandoned home are barred. Above the doorway and the faded posters of the two guardian gods a fung shui mirror hangs.
Such images have been captured by F8, a group of amateur photographers who ventured into this ''dying village''.
Their works can be seen at Shalotung: End of the Road , a monochrome exhibition of moody, artistic photographs of three old agricultural villages and communities: Ping Shan Chai, Lei Uk, and Cheung Uk, The show starts at the Fringe Club on Thursday and runs until November 3, coinciding with Image Hong Kong, the premier photographic event of the year in which photographers from all over the world gather in the territory.
''With all the photographs taken in black and white, there is an old fashion feel to the exhibition,'' said Janet Stott, whose works will be displayed with 50 other pictures.
F8 comprises seven amateur photographers, all expatriates living in the territory and members of the Royal Photographic Society in Britain.
Stott said the idea of taking pictures of Shalotung originated from a trip to a gold rush town in California where her husband was taking landscape shots in monochrome.