While many people remember Hong Kong as a bustling and crowded metropolis, photographer Cody Ellingham has taken a step back and portrayed a silent city bathed in neon and moonlight.
Ellingham, who is currently based in the New Zealand capital Wellington, said in a media release that he had been a regular visitor to Hong Kong before the Covid travel restrictions.
The photographer said his artwork arose from “a deep yearning for travel,” and served as a retrospective of the way Hong Kong has changed since he was last here in 2018.
There are two Hong Kongs in Ellingham’s mind – the reality and the one which exists in people’s fond memories. “I often wonder how we can get back to that other Hong Kong, of which only dreams remain,” he said.
For Ellingham, the once crowded, noisy and full of life Kai Tak Airport personified the old Hong Kong and memories of it are featured in his latest photographic book – Fantasy City by the Harbour.
The collector’s edition will include a plane ticket with the long-defunct Kai Tak printed as its destination and “by using it as a focal point to the artwork I feel like it is a way to travel back to that old Hong Kong that lives on in our memories.”
The photographer said the colour renditions and compositions in his new book were also inspired by the golden age of Hong Kong cinema between the 1980s and early 2000s.
Fantasy City By The Harbour- click for details.
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