Billy H.C. Kwok Captures His Changing Birthplace On the Streets

 A man golfing in front of residential buildings and construction sites. Hong Kong is marking 20 years since the territory was handed from Britain to China, after more than 150 years of British rule, as the handover on July 1, 1997, had been viewed with a mixture of uncertainty and hope. All images taken with a Nikon Z7 camera, and © Billy H.C. Kwok

When Billy H.C. Kwok describes the way that Hong Kong, the city where he was born and raised, has changed since it was officially reverted to Chinese sovereignty on July 1, 1997, he uses this analogy: “Last year, I went to New York City, and I took a taxi,” he began. “In New York, there are many different colors of people and they come from all over the world. In Hong Kong, when I was growing up, it was not like that. If I took a taxi, the driver was always from Hong Kong and spoke Cantonese. He knew Hong Kong very well, and could talk to me about it. Now when I take a taxi there, the driver speaks Mandarin, and he has a Chinese accent.”

Even though some of the changes that Kwok notices are subtle, he says they are impactful enough that he no longer feels at home in the place where he was raised.

Based in Taiwan for the past five years, Kwok returns frequently to his birthplace to take photographs for his ongoing project “Hong Kong: After the Handover.” While the city is currently weathering protests, Kwok’s images are not always political. Instead, they explore the everyday of life in Hong Kong—a man hitting golf balls at a driving range with skyscrapers encroaching on the borders of the facility; a man singing karaoke in front of a distracted audience; children playing in front of a gigantic satellite dish in a shantytown.

While many people who move to another country find their birthplaces much changed by the modern age when they return, this change is especially acute in Hong Kong, a city that for 150 years was infused with British culture. Since the handover in 1997, the city has adopted more aspects of Chinese culture. In the midst of this change, local residents have struggled to foment their own identities.

In order to capture the vicissitude around him, Kwok must be nimble on his feet, ready at all times to snap photographs on the street. To do that successfully, he relies on his Nikon gear, especially the Nikon Nikon Z 7 with a NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S lens. “It’s superfast,” he says. “It’s actually amazing.”

In particular, Kwok loves that the camera is very light and takes high-quality images—as good as any DSLR he has used in the past. “I can crop a very large image taken with the  Z 7 into very small picture, and it still looks great,” he says.

The camera, he notes, works great even in low light. “When I use a flash with the Z 7, the images are super stable,” he notes.

The series, which Kwok began in 2017, is a work in progress. Lately, he has been traveling frequently to Hong Kong to capture the political unrest there. He sees it all as part of a larger effort to capture the city as it transforms from a place he knows into a place that is increasingly international—more like New York City, for example. “Capturing the change is a very important part of Hong Kong’s history, you have to do it,” he says. “Being out in the streets is exciting.”

Have you told a story through video that required passion for a place, much as Kwok has passion for Hong Kong? Enter Nikon’s Follow Your Passion contest for a chance to win up to $25,000 in prizes, submissions end on Oct 31^st.  For full details and rules on how to enter, visit followyourpassion.com.

To learn more about Kwok’s work, visit his website, or follow him on Instagram.

Below is a selection of images from “Hong Kong: After the Handover.”

Members of the local chamber of commerce celebrate ahead of 20th anniversary of the handover from Britain to China.

Two “new” child Hongkongers playing outside a shack on the rooftop. Based on reports, Hong Kong’s super-wealthy has enjoyed the benefits from the increased investment from the mainland, especially in property, although the huge influx of money from the mainland have raised the costs of living for most people in the city while its income inequality continue to rise.

Leung Fuk Yuen, Shap Pat Heung rural committee chairman and one of the indigenous leaders in the New Territories, eats wax apples while he is riding the horse in the leisure park he operates.

Members of the local chamber of commerce celebrate ahead of 20th anniversary of the handover from Britain to China.

A woman dances during the Charity Gala.

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