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Artist Alex Ma's duplicitous tale of two cities

Alex Ma blends his birthplace Hong Kong and his home Sydney in a celebration of universality

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Artist Alex Ma

Photographer Alex Ma, 61, is a cheat, and he wants you to know it.

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"I'm cheating your eyes," said the Hong Kong-born, Australia-based artist, who is back this week for a solo show in the design gallery at Polytechnic University in Hung Hom.

His trick is to take a photo of a street scene in Hong Kong and then find a similar situation in Sydney. He joins the two images together to create a single image. It is difficult to tell where one city stops and the other begins, which is one of Ma's goals - to show the dual identities of Sydney and Hong Kong through the deception of technology.

"It's to reflect the lifestyle of the two cities, which have a similar history, size of population and weather," he said. "And we both have a very nice harbour."

Both cities were home to large migrant populations, which created a multicultural landscape, Ma said.

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"Ninety per cent of my photos are of people, and even though they are different places, the photos create an illusion they live in one place, one world."

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