“I was lucky,” says Lever. “It was my mum who introduced me to the wet markets when I was about nine. She would drag me around shopping ... it was always good fun.

“So much of the magic in Hong Kong exists on street level but we spend much of our lives in the air – we sleep on the 30th floor, work on the 20th floor, eat on the 10th floor,” adds Lever, who released his first “Street” series 12 years ago. “With this collection, I want to bring our attention back down to earth, to pay homage to the characters that play an unsung role in our lives.”

Lever says that while each portrait contains a hint of humour, he is also making a state­ment about the need for the city to better protect its heritage. He wants the government to start treating areas such as wet markets as cultural sites that deserve to be preserved, and adds that the city could take a leaf out of Singapore’s heritage book – last year, the Lion City created the SG Heritage Plan, a five-year initiative for safeguarding and promoting heritage and culture.

Wet markets don’t just cater to [Hong Kong resi­dents], they also attract loads of tourists,” he says. “Singapore has the balance right in terms of preserving its architectural heritage and modernity. I realise it doesn’t have the same space pressures as here but it has retained its historical magic, preser­v­ing its shophouses and artisans’ premises.