HK UNSEEN

(exhibited at Blue Lotus Gallery, November – December 2021)

The 1980s are widely considered Hong Kong's “Golden Age", the decade when the city came into its own, seemingly full of promise and infinite possibilities. A young Greg Girard, growing up in Vancouver, was deeply struck by a 1962 photograph of Hong Kong harbour, by Eliot Elisofon, and he made it his life's mission to get here and see it for himself. He first arrived by boat in 1974 and in 1982 decided to settle down in this bustling city. Drawn by Hong Kong’s dynamic blend of east and west, Girard spent the 1980s roaming its streets, capturing Hong Kong as he saw it, especially at night, raw and very much alive. This key period helped Girard define his path as a photographer and artist. Blue Lotus Gallery proudly presents HK UNSEEN, photographs by the iconic artist that have never been exhibited before.

Prints are available here.

HK:PM

Hong Kong Nightlife 1974-1989

(exhibited at Blue Lotus Gallery, October–November 2017)

HK:PM is Greg Girard’s ode to nocturnal Hong Kong between 1974 and 1989, the earliest work of the photographer’s long relationship with Asia. A journey exploring the underside of a city he first visited as a teenager in 1974 and and later lived in for 15 years. The photographs in HK:PM are imbued with the noir allure and seedy pastels of Hong Kong in its prime. “I started taking photographs at night as soon as I picked up my first camera. I never really thought of them as “night” pictures. It was just a different kind of light, whether neon, fluorescent, moonlight or the light of the city reflected off an overcast sky. But Hong Kong was alive at night in a way that other places weren’t,” says Girard. Alive indeed, when darkness falls another world comes out to play and these photographs capture just that.

HK:PM shows people at work, people at play, and simply getting on with their lives, mostly with the particular atmospheric backdrop of Hong Kong at night. A world onto itself, a place where jetliners almost touch the buildings when they come in for landing, where your desires can be met at an instant, and where people from all over the world pass through. Not portraying the glamour that some may associate with the city, instead we are invited to see how this place may have been tough for some, however driven by the hope that is the “Hong Kong Dream.” Attracted to the hidden and often dark beauty in everyday life, Girard is a champion of the common man as he explores “the often overlooked features that define daily life for its residents.” 

Published by Asia One and with a foreword by award winning Hong Kong director Ann Hui, HK:PM adds a missing photographic link to the visual record of Hong Kong in the 1970s and 80s. 

《HK:PM》是 格雷格·吉拉德（Greg Girard）於 1974 年至 1989 年間，在香港夜間裡所奏出的頌歌，這亦成為了攝影師長期記錄亞洲的最早期作品之一。 1974 年，當 吉拉德 還是一名少年時，他第一次拜會這座城市的陰暗面，後來卻在此居住了十五年。《HK:PM》中的照片充滿了香港的黑色魅力和風流的粉彩色調。「當我擁有第一台相機後，便開始在夜間拍攝。但我從未沒有將它們視為『夜景』照片。不管是霓虹燈、螢光管、月光或是從陰雲密布的天空中反射出來的城市之光，於我來說都只是不同的光。但是香港在夜間卻充滿其他地方沒有的獨特活力。」吉拉德 說。 當黑夜降臨時，另一個世界乍然出現，而這些照片恰好捕捉了這一點。

《HK:PM》展現出工作中的人們、娛樂中的人們以及只是簡單地過著生活的人們，而其中大部分都是在香港特別的黑夜氛圍下進行。這個充滿自我的世界、一個就連噴氣客機降落時都幾乎與建築物接觸的城市、一個可以立馬滿足你不同需求的地方、一片來自五湖四海的人們都可以路經之地。《HK:PM》沒有刻意描繪某些人物與這座城市偶遇的魅力，反之卻邀請觀眾去欣賞，某些人受到「香港夢」的希望所驅使卻換來的苦澀。被日常隱藏同時黑暗的魅力所吸引，吉拉德 成為了「平民百姓」的擁護者，探索出「偶爾被忽略的居民日常特徵」。

由Asia One發行的《HK:PM》, 得到屢獲殊榮的香港導演許鞍華賜序, 亦為七、八十年代香港的視覺記錄填補了缺失的攝影鏈接。

City of Darkness

(exhibited at Blue Lotus Gallery, November – December 2019)

Greg's Story:

I first visited Hong Kong in 1974. I heard stories about the Kowloon Walled City on that visit but it wasn’t until I moved to Hong Kong years later that I saw the Walled City for myself. I came across it one night in 1986 when photographing near Hong Kong’s old international airport, Kai Tak. At that time the Walled City was partially surrounded by a two-story squatter village, and to enter the City you had to make your way past the hostile stares of village residents. At night the massive 12- and 14-storey facade glowed from the interior lighting of hundreds of apartments, and hummed to the sound of air conditioners and fans and television sets tuned to evening programmes. 

Once inside the first thing you noticed was the tangled overhead electrical wiring and plastic water tubing, and the narrowness of the ‘streets’ – alleys formed in the spaces between buildings. Nothing I had heard about the place was any help to process the information my eyes, ears and nose were delivering. In modern Hong Kong this place was something from a parallel universe. I wasn’t able to make any photographs on that first visit, but soon returned and started trying to make sense of the place, gradually gaining the trust, or at least the indifference, of residents.

I was introduced to Ian during this time, intrigued to learn that someone else was interested in photographing the Walled City. And we ended up collaborating on the book City of Darkness: Life in Kowloon Walled City. In retrospect it seems astonishing that the Walled City didn’t attract more attention – from photographers, film-makers, architects – while it was still standing. And in our new book, City of Darkness Revisited, we go to some length to register the attention it has received and the influence it has generated since its demolition in 1993.

I am sometimes asked whether I think the Walled City should have been preserved. Years ago I usually said that it would have been impossible – preserving it would probably change it into something else or, if kept as it was, it would be unfair to expect people to tolerate those grim conditions. Recently though I’ve started to wonder where a conversation about it all might lead.

我於 1974 年首次訪問香港。在那次到訪中，我聽聞了關於九龍城寨的故事，但直到多年後我正式移居香港，才親眼目睹這座寨城。1986 年的一個晚上，我在香港舊啟德國際機場附近拍攝時遇見了它。當時，城寨被一個兩層高的棚屋區部分包圍，要進入城內，你必須經歷不友善的村莊居民目光。到了晚上，巨大的十二層及十四層高的建築面，從數百套公寓的室內燈光中發出光芒，空調、電風扇和正在播放晚間節目的電視機，發出嗡嗡聲響，響徹了整個空間。

當進入內部時，你首先注意到的是糾纏的架空電線和塑料水管，以及無數小巷在建築物之間的空間形成的狹窄「街道」。我之前所耳聞過關於這裡的資訊，對於我當下眼睛、耳朵和鼻子所接收的信息，完全沒有帶來任何幫助。在現代香港裡，這個地方彷彿來自平行宇宙。第一次到訪時，我驚訝得沒有拍攝任何照片，但我很快就重訪，開始嘗試理解這個地方，並逐漸贏得居民的信任，或者至少是無視。

在這段期間，我被介紹予 林保賢（Ian Lambot），很高興得知有人對拍攝九龍城寨感興趣。 結果我們合作完成了《黑暗之城：九龍城寨的日與夜》一書。 回想起來，最令我驚訝的是，城牆仍然屹立期間，竟沒有吸引到攝影師、電影製作人、建築師們的更多關注。在我們的新書《City of Darkness - Revisited》（黑暗之城－再訪）中，我們竭盡所能，記錄了自1993年拆除以來城寨受到的關注和所產生的影響。

有時我會被問及，到底是否應該保留城寨。 數年前，我通常說這是不可能的，保留它可能導致其自身的改變，又或者如果保持原貌，即是不公平地指望居民們繼續容忍這些嚴峻的生活條件。最近，我開始想知道，有關這一切的討論可以走到多遠。

Prints by Greg Girard available here.

Prints Available online:

To receive the full catalogue, please contact us.

Press Received:

2016-6 | Daily Beast - 'The Lost Chinese City Police Feared to Enter'

2016-4 | Daily Mail - 'Inside the fortress city: Amazing images from the lawless Hong Kong slum, once home to 30,000 and one of the most densely populated place on earth'

2015-12 | ASX - 'An Interview with Greg Girard: Vancouver to Kowloon – Watching Globalisation Unfold'

2015-1 | CNN - 'Life inside the densest place on earth: Remembering Kowloon Walled City'

2014-4 | Time Out Hong Kong 

2014-4 | SCMP - 'A Blot to be desired'

2013-4 | Gizmodo - 'Kowloon Walled City: Remembering Hong Kong's Chaotic City of Darkness'

2013-2 | SCMP - 'Kowloon Walled City: Life in the City of Darkness' 

2012-5 | Daily Mail - 'Inside the Kowloon Walled City where 50,000 residents eked out a grimy living in the most densely populated place on earth'

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