The COVID-19 pandemic brought about drastic changes in Hong Kong and across the world, and the subsequent resilience in early 2023 had profound social and economic repercussions. With the restoration of geographical mobility, we have witnessed shifts in landscapes that may transform perceptions of homeland and family. These changes ignite inspiration and creative encouragement among photographers, paving the way for a new chapter in Hong Kong art.
As the flagship exhibition of the 2024 Hong Kong International Photo Festival, Mega Family: Imagining Home, aims to explore these evolving physical, cultural, and even mental landscapes. The exhibition invites fifteen photographers from different generations to showcase portfolios about Hong Kong. All of the works were created in the 2020, serving as a visual documentation of the social changes experienced under the new normality.
Echoing French philosophers Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of the rhizome, a metaphor for a non-hierarchical, interconnected network of ideas and experiences,; this diverse collection of works presents the imagination of home and homeland as a dynamic map of nodes shaped by complex forces across time and space. Flows— in and out, past and present, migrants and travellers, humans and their shifting values, traditions, and lifestyles— have been constantly shaping the form and substance of the cityscape, characterised by multiplicities, fluidities, and hybridity. Each flow penetrates the fissures of the city’s fabric, nurturing and nurtured by its soil and soul.
Together, these artworks weave an ongoing, non-linear Hong Kong story, where the personal and collective intertwine, where the subjective and imaginary engage with objective reality, and where nostalgia and futurism reflect and inform one another.
In addition to presenting subjective and conceptual views of ‘home’ and ‘family’, this exhibition showcases a progression of the photographic medium from film photographs to manipulated images, mixed media, to AI experiments, exemplifying the rhizomatic potentiality of photography in narrating, responding to, and imagining reality.
Curator
Blues Wong is a member of the Hong Kong International Photography Festival’s Curatorial Subcommittee. On behalf of the HKIPF, he has previously curated the following FUJIFILM HK-sponsored events: Mega Family: Imagining Home (2024, HKIPF); 1000 Families Photography Exhibition (2016, HKIPF) and 300 Families Photography Exhibition (2013, HKIPF). His essay, ‘Daido Moriyama: Beyond the Black and White’ was included in the Reflection and Refraction: Daido Moriyama’(HKIPF 2012) exhibition catalogue.
Curator
Carol Chow obtained her PhD in Communication from The Chinese University of Hong Kong and her Master’s degree in Visual Arts from Hong Kong Baptist University. With a background in philosophy, communication, and visual arts, her research and curatorial work aim to integrate contemporary social issues and theory, seeking to produce reflexive knowledge through the power of photography.
Her curatorial projects include Voice of Tacitness: Asian Women Photography Exhibition (2013, Dali International Photography Festival), A Room with a View: Hong Kong Stories through the Lens of Six Female Photographers (2016, Singapore International Photography Festival), and Who Cares: Photovoice of Female Mainland Immigrants in Hong Kong (2021), which explore gender inequality and the marginalisation of female voices in historical narratives. The Wall 2019 (2019), “Beijing_Kilometers (2021), and The Wall: A Parallel of East-West Germany and the Sino-Hong Kong Reunion (2022) examine the interplay between complex geopolitical and cultural-historical forces. Pharmakon (2021) explores the impact of digital technology and artificial intelligence on reality and truth, while The Rhythm of Silence (2024) combines photography and painting to investigate the intersection of urban space and human conditions, as well as the dialogue between different artistic mediums.
In addition to her curatorial work, Chow has organised and hosted multiple photography lectures for various photography institutions and written introductions for several photography exhibitions. Chow currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Hong Kong International Photography Festival.