This project reflects on the socio-political shifts in Hong Kong over the past two decades. Through a series of landscape photographs depicting the shorelines of colonial-era reservoirs, the work uses geography as a metaphor to express emotional and political tension.
The project takes inspiration from Robert Adams, a key figure in the New Topographics movement. In his essay “Truth in Landscape,” Adams articulates three essential dimensions of landscape photography: geography, autobiography, and metaphor. This series integrates these verities as follows:
- Geography: The reservoirs, still vital to Hong Kong’s water supply, are artifacts of British colonial infrastructure—traces of a bygone era embedded in the everyday.
- Autobiography: As a Hongkonger, I respond to the city’s evolving identity with a sense of loss and longing, shaped by personal memories of the colonial past.
- Metaphor: The reservoirs’ edges—formed by erosion and change—serve as metaphors for the political and social forces reshaping Hong Kong today.
Nine functioning reservoirs were photographed, each with uniquely contoured shorelines. These liminal edges evoke both natural transformation and societal friction, embodying the quiet yet persistent tension of transition.
