Hong Kong Photowalk Series: Sai Ying Pun

This website is the space I’ve set aside to write about my travels and reminisce about the things I’ve seen and experienced. What I don’t end up talking much about is the city where I actually spend 90% of my time, which is unfortunate. Hong Kong is a fascinating place to live in, and it has enough going on visually to fill a thousand camera rolls (or SD cards) – and more. I do post some local street photography on my personal Instagram account, but on this website I’ve only got one measly post about Hong Kong written a few years ago about my three month stay back in 2008.

So I’m going to turn back the clock a bit with my next few posts, to the fall of 2016. At the time, I was just starting my Master of Journalism degree at the University of Hong Kong, and one of the courses I signed up for was photojournalism with veteran Dutch photojournalist Kees Metselaar. I’d always been keen on playing around with photography, and, if nothing else, this class gave me an excuse to carry my camera around Hong Kong on a regular basis. That fall, I went out on a few photowalks around the city, both for class and for personal interest, and it helped to hone my own personal vision of Hong Kong as I consciously slowed down and captured details that usually passed me by.

The first photowalk I did was during one of the first few photojournalism classes. We were given a couple of hours to walk down from the campus in the hills to do street photography in the neighbourhood of Sai Ying Pun, a half-gentrified collection of city blocks filled with wet markets, luxury residences, metal-working garages, butcher shops, high-end coffee spaces, and money changers. I’ve put up my favourite shots from that photowalk below, and over my next few posts I’ll get through the rest of my photowalks from that fall. Unfortunately I haven’t found the time since then to do any further photography in Hong Kong, but after looking through these I’m definitely tempted to start it up again.