Minimalist photographer’s unexpected images of Hong Kong inspired by the late Michael Wolf

When Jonathan Setter visited Hong Kong last year for the first time, a trip to the Instagram-famous Choi Hung Estate was part of the itinerary.

While tourists and locals were taking wide-angle shots of the rainbow-coloured public housing blocks, Setter zoomed in on the monochrome, rough concrete surface of a staircase.

“Why aren’t you taking photos like everybody else?” a bystander asked, confused by what he was doing. Setter’s collection of images is the answer.

The 29-year-old, who was born in Detroit and is based in Sydney, Australia, skilfully extracts angles, lines, and textures and creates unexpected close-up views of cities. He uses his camera to explore urban spaces and the colours and materials that shape them.

“I capture the details people walk past daily,” he says. “I’m trying to get people to slow down, to take a closer look around them – even though these [urban] details might seem banal.”

Setter’s work is anything but mundane. A winner of several photography prizes, his work has been exhibited worldwide in group shows; in March 2019, he had his debut solo exhibition at Sydney’s Koskela Gallery. His photographs will next be shown on October 30 in the Australian city’s Wedge Gallery.

Simultaneously Setter will launch his first photography volume – The Urban Text. The book features images from Los Angeles, Sydney, Melbourne and Hong Kong, and illustrates the complex aspects that make up a city’s character and culture.

Hong Kong stands out for Setter. “The [building] materials used here are so different than in the other cities,” Setter says. His Hong Kong body of work covers images of objects on Hong Kong Island, in Kowloon and in some of the outer districts, including Lai King, Wong Tai Sin, and Shek Kip Mei.

His desire to investigate urban details as a photographic subject was inspired by the late Hong Kong-based photographer Michael Wolf. Setter researched and studied Wolf’s work for the master’s thesis he wrote while studying fine art at Sydney’s National Art School.

Setter met Wolf, who died in April, twice within 12 months. The first time was at Wolf’s studio in Chai Wan, at the industrial eastern end of Hong Kong Island, in March 2018. “I ended up buying three prints from him, and my partner acquired a large print from his Architecture of Density series,” Setter says, referring to Wolf’s investigation of Hong Kong’s repetitive patterns and forms and the city’s rapid expansion.

The German artist published numerous photography books, including a 10-volume series about objects found in Hong Kong’s back alleys. Setter, who owns copies of most of them, took them to Wolf’s Cheung Chau Sunrise book-signing event at Art Central in March. “When I pulled my pile of books out of my bag, his face lit up with a huge smile,” Setter says.

Deeply saddened by Wolf’s death so soon after their meeting, Setter treasures all the more Wolf’s advice to “start finding more what’s part of a city”.

“Ever since, I think about what the city I’m in feels like,” Setter says.

This year, the photographer – who has more than 44,000 followers on Instagram – used social media to connect with Hongkongers who wanted to shoot with him on the city’s streets. “They took me to some interesting spots,” he says.

One was Nam Lok House, which offers from its old rooftop playground a 360-degree view of Shek Kip Mei.

“There is a half-circle frame on the playground that people shoot selfies on. When it rains, people use the reflection in the puddles of water to make it a perfect circle,” says Setter, explaining the attraction.

The American discovered his love of photography three years ago after he had moved from Los Angeles, where he was a special-effects assistant for television shows, to Sydney to be with his Australian partner.

“I needed something to relate to this place,” he says, explaining why he started photographing his new home, which is renowned for its waterfront.

Studying Sydney’s strands will be Setter’s next project, which he hopes to begin by the end of the month, when the 100-200 mm lens he has ordered for his new Hasselblad X1D is due to arrive. “I’ll explore the architecture of Sydney’s beaches and show how it is as important as the sand and surf,” he says.

Reflecting on his work, Setter says, “I do architecture for now. But I have a couple of experimental ideas that will take me away from that. I hope one day I can do portraits. But I will always use the camera to present things people do not notice as much.”