NEW WORK.
EDEN OF THE ORIENT
Hong Kong’s Dilemma
A photo-essay by Kris Provoost
2020
Over the past months, I ventured out across Hong Kong with the aim to better understand the urban conditions. Away from the glitchy skyscrapers I went to the places where the majority of the Hong Kong people live, to capture the ‘way we live’.
Hong Kong has a unique set of urban characteristics. Beyond what it is known for: a vertical city boasting the highest number of skyscrapers in any city around the world, it reveals a growing lack of space. Build on a set of islands, with mountainous terrain covering the majority of the available land, all that is left to build are tiny slivers of space where the ever-rising population needs to be housed. To solve the land shortage, the Hong Kong government has been building hyper-dense 'new towns'. The results are staggering and form the subject of this photo-essay. 2 seemingly completely unassociated elements converge in the hong kong landscape: high rise living with abundant green-topped mountains. It reveals a set of problems, and explains the deeper meaning of the social unrest currently overtaking Hong Kong: is there still a liveable future in Hong Kong?
Photos taken across Hong Kong with a primary focus on the 9 New Towns.
See the entire seriets in the photo-essay section of the website
Large scale prints are available of the photos in the series. Please have a look at the PRINTS section on the website and reach out to me at krisprovoost@me.com in case you have any questions.
