HKFP Lens: Bound – Jo Farrell’s humanising photos of China’s last women with bound feet

The Chinese practice of foot-binding – contorting the feet of young girls to retain their petiteness – died out in the 20th century.

A few elderly women in rural villages who underwent the painful custom survive today.

In the mid-2000s, photographer Jo Farrell travelled across China – mostly rural Yunnan and Shandong – finding dozens of women with bound feet. Some were often 100 years old.

“It was the only way forward for women,” says Farrell. “They did it because they thought it would give them a better future, a better life.”

But today, some of them have been ignored and left to themselves in their old age.

“The humanising photographs are all taken using a Hasselblad camera showing not only their feet but also beautiful portraits of the women and their home surroundings,” said exhibition partner Blue Lotus Gallery.

Farrell’s exhibition – Bound – will be shown at Sheung Wan’s Hong Kong Museum of Medical Science between March 18 to 31.

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