Photo-Book: Taxi Art Hong Kong | Allison Haworth West
Photo-Book: Taxi Art Hong Kong | Allison Haworth West
Published by Asia One, Hong Kong, 2017
Second Edition
22 x 22 cm
Hard Cover
122 pages
English and Chinese
ISBN: 978-988-77121-5
TAXI ART is a celebration of the art on the dashboards of Hong Kong taxis. After many years of shooting and the many adventures and that went with it - Allison Haworth West has produced a book of images that portrays the worlds that are created inside their taxis by taxi drivers on their dashboards and hanging from their rear view mirrors. The art of the Hong Kong taxi is a cultural phenomenon. Whether it is a superhero, a cartoon character, a religious icon, a plant, some fresh jasmine or just a line up of multiple phones in stands - many of the dashboards of Hong Kong taxis tell a story. Sometimes carefully curated, other times haphazardly placed, they are part of the driver's world that they share with their passengers. It is something that means something to them and adds to the tapestry of the experience for the passenger whether they are cognisant of it or not. The importance of TAXI ART is evident in the slow disappearance of these cultural icons with the emergence of UBER and the consolidation of ownership in taxi licenses it appears TAXI ART might just be becoming a dying art.