Without any formal artistic training, Guillaume doesn’t feel particularly tied to any photographic discipline but aims to develop his own way of recording and interpreting the visual elements that make the Hong Kong cityscape unique. He takes inspiration from street photography, but also the architectural practice while injecting some of the formalism he developed during his engineer years. While Hong Kong is constantly being rebuilt, the effect of time, with the hot and damp climate and the intense human activity, have led to the formation of what he calls the “Hong Kong Crust” and to which he pays particular attention during his creative process.

Originally attracted to the subjugating views of the city that made the backdrop of so many of the movies he consumed during his teenage years, his focus progressively changed to the smaller elements of the local streetscape, most of them highly utilitarian but with an unusual sense of abstract aestheticism.

One day he hopes to be able to dedicate himself to a full time project, and to learn to write and play music.

Guillaume shares 3 series of photographs in ubudeco, “Quotidian Marvels”, “The Lustre of a Pearl” and “Mono”.

Quotidian Marvels

It is easy to be subjugated by the skyscrapers, the sea and the mountains all surrounding Victoria Harbor when coming to Hong Kong for the first time. Actually, with the pace of change of the city, even repeated visits can bring a varying impression toward the general cityscape each time and yet, it remains distinctly Hong Kong. However, beyond these iconic features of international fame, there are other visual patterns in the city that may not be so famous, but that will still make a Hongkonger recognize his home place at the first glance. Among the neon signs, once ubiquitous but now an unfortunate feature on the verge of extinction, the colonial architectural heritage, slowly denatured, and the harbour itself, narrower and narrower, remain the places of living and working of countless locals: public housing complexes, industrial estates and B-tier commercial buildings. It is these seemingly nameless and trivial constructions and their visual quality that I wanted to honor in this series of photographs. Ancient or newly opened, the public housing complexes all sport striking color schemes. The industrial estates will draw your eyes to a fractal of equipment festooned to their facades and even anonymous sites such as a commercial building or a school might boast some surprising style. The next time you take a stroll out of the typical touristy places in Hong Kong, look at the buildings around. We hope this series gives you a different way to appreciate them.

The Lustre of a Pearl

While Hong Kong is a city majoritarily planned by its successive administrations, every single one of its surfaces has been altered as the result of the intense activity of its inhabitants. A curb might have gotten its particular shine by the constant passage of delivery carts, pushed relentlessly with speed as the only goal. The constant burning of incense in temples cakes the walls with soot while giving shape to the sunlight passing through ceiling shades. Worn out curtains stretched across back alleys mix the hues of nearby electrified signs on the shininess of their own plastic fabric in an improbable kaleidoscope of colors. It’s simply a luminous feast for the eyes! It would be heresy to show Hong Kong lights without mentioning its neon signs. Victims of more and more stringent regulations, maintenance costs and with the dwindling numbers of the master crafters, they are quickly replaced with LED signs, efficient but usually crude and cold. Can progress coexist with charm? While the neon signs’ apogee is now behind our time, the remaining ones still provide this soft, pillowy glow that is now making plenty nostalgic.

Mono

There is just so much to see at all scales in Hong Kong: world-class vistas, architectural wonders, but also, curiosities at the human level. For anyone with an interest in architecture, urbanism, but also accidental design and informal spaces and the place of man in the city, it is an absolute playground. For the photographer, it is a dazzling, neverending documentation project. But sometimes the simplest pleasures can be found in the simplest things, so I have here gathered a selection of photographs in the simplest colors, of stark contrasts, dark shades and luminous textures, in which sometimes tiny dwellers can be found roaming. The city then takes the shape of an abstract labyrinth, sometimes suffocating, sometimes enlightening, but never plain and full of quirks. It is unfortunate that in the name of business, efficiency and “progress”, these textures are becoming indesirable and the “new” is often seen with the “uniform”. We hope that you’ll also perceive that even in its messiness, contradictions and the crust it grew from time, Hong Kong can proudly bear its own beauty. Artworks from Guillaume HOW CHOONG There is just so much to see at all scales in Hong Kong: world-class vistas, architectural wonders, but also, curiosities at the human level. For anyone with an interest in architecture, urbanism, but also accidental design and informal spaces and the place of man in the city, it is an absolute playground. For the photographer, it is a dazzling, neverending documentation project. But sometimes the simplest pleasures can be found in the simplest things, so I have here gathered a selection of photographs in the simplest colors, of stark contrasts, dark shades and luminous textures, in which sometimes tiny dwellers can be found roaming. The city then takes the shape of an abstract labyrinth, sometimes suffocating, sometimes enlightening, but never plain and full of quirks. It is unfortunate that in the name of business, efficiency and “progress”, these textures are becoming indesirable and the “new” is often seen with the “uniform”. We hope that you’ll also perceive that even in its messiness, contradictions and the crust it grew from time, Hong Kong can proudly bear its own beauty.