"Hong Kong Poetry"
Hong Kong’s Soul In Focus

Fan Ho, Palani Mohan, Thomas Gust, and Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze

Exhibition: 22 March – 27 April 2025

The bustling metropolis of Hong Kong, with its striking juxtapositions of towering skyscrapers, meandering alleyways, neon-lit streets, and tranquil harbors, has long been a muse to photographers from around the world. This March, the essence of this iconic city is brought to life in the group exhibition, Hong Kong Poetry, featuring the evocative works of celebrated photographers Fan Ho, Palani Mohan, Thomas Gust, and Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze.

Hong Kong is more than a city; it is a living, breathing tapestry of stories. Its urban labyrinth of sleek modernity, colonial remnants, and deeply-rooted traditions has inspired generations of photographers to uncover its layers and nuances. From the interplay of light and shadow in narrow streets to the human narratives unfolding amidst its urban density, Hong Kong’s dynamic essence is a natural canvas for poetic photography.

Revered as one of the greatest Asian photographers of the 20th century, Fan Ho’s iconic black-and-white images immortalize the Hong Kong of the 1950s and 1960s. Through his masterful use of light and shadow, he captured a city in transformation—brimming with both nostalgia and modernity. In this exhibition selected experimental works will be on display.

Award-winning Australian photographer Palani Mohan’s work has been widely published and exhibited, focusing on themes of culture, identity, and the human spirit. Mohan’s work highlights the profound connection between Hong Kong's inhabitants and the sea that envelops the city. Far more than a mere geographical feature, the sea is a lifeline that has profoundly shaped Hong Kong’s history, economy, and culture. From bustling harbors teeming with ferries and cargo ships to serene fishing villages and tranquil waterfront promenades, the sea is woven into the daily lives of the city’s residents. Through his lens, Mohan captures this intimate relationship, portraying the sea as both a boundary and a bridge—linking Hong Kong’s storied past to its dynamic present, while offering moments of calm amidst the city’s frenetic pace. His photography moves beyond the obvious, focusing on the subtler, often-overlooked aspects of the city. With vibrant scenes and rich colors, Mohan brings to life the textures, contrasts, and rhythms of everyday existence, offering a fresh and poetic perspective on Hong Kong.

German photographer and publisher Thomas Gust explores themes of memory, connection, and urban life through a distinctive blend of photography and fine art. During his stay in Hong Kong in 2023 and 2024, Gust sought to create a visually independent perspective on the city, combining traditional photography with abstraction and manual interventions such as overpainting. This process transforms his images while preserving their photographic essence, pushing the boundaries of the medium.

Drawing inspiration from Romanticism, Gust incorporates elements like trees and floral motifs juxtaposed against Hong Kong’s cityscape, blending 19th-century art historical compositions with expressive, contemporary techniques. His work reimagines urban and natural landscapes, offering a fresh, conceptually rich interpretation of Hong Kong and challenging conventional ideas of photography.

Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze’s will show selected works of his series "City Poetry" which is a personal and artistic tribute to Hong Kong and its Cantonese culture. The series captures the beauty of the city’s street signs, with their worn textures, peeling paint, rusted metal, and broken neon, transforming them into poetic representations of time’s passage. With the help of his wife, Jacquet-Lagrèze translates the characters, deepening his understanding of Hong Kong’s language and culture. He artfully combines characters from different signs to create visual and linguistic collages, celebrating the beauty of traditional Chinese calligraphy while reimagining the city’s urban landscape as a poetic canvas. "City Poetry" is a striking exploration of Hong Kong’s visual identity and its cultural and spiritual essence.

Through their lenses, these photographers have transformed Hong Kong into a visual symphony—a place where the ordinary becomes extraordinary, and the ephemeral becomes eternal. Each image is a poem, revealing the layers of a city that is simultaneously chaotic and serene, historic and futuristic, intimate and vast.

The exhibition is a reminder of the power of art to elevate the everyday. With its ever-changing skyline and vibrant street life, Hong Kong remains an inexhaustible source of inspiration for those who seek to capture its soul.