Poverty ‧
Masters
CatchUP with Ko Chung Ming
CatchUP with Ko Chung Ming, winner of WMA Masters – ‘Poverty’. Ko won the first place with his controversial series ‘Wounds of Hong Kong’ in the Documentary category of 2020 Sony World Photography Awards.
WMA: W, K: Ko Chung Ming
W: What were your original plans for this time of the year?
K: As a journalist, my life under the pandemic has changed very little, I still go to work as usual. I spent my free time at home and used the downtime to reorganise my photographs. It is an enormous task which I hope to finish some day.
W: What are you doing now instead?
K: I was also busying with the photobook publication and a solo exhibition, which will open on 13 June. The production of some key components of the exhibition was delayed because the factories were closed in China. I am now working hard to catch up.
With the exhibition open date fast approaching, I am focused on the show and the publication. ‘Wounds of Hong Kong’ is my second photobook. It will showcase the full series from this project, images of all 24 interviewees and their interviews. The editing part is challenging, I struggled between different narratives, as this is crucial to how readers will be engaged and how they can better understand the turmoil in Hong Kong. The series will travel to Taiwan and Australia later.
After the exhibition, I will attend to a few on-going photo projects. The mainly focus on the vulnerable groups in the city, e.g. domestic workers, and the ‘Cents Mansion’ series which was awarded WMA Masters – ‘Poverty’ cycle. There is also my long-term project about the homeless which started in 2014, perhaps it is about time to wrap it up.
Ko’s solo exhibition “Wounds of Hong Kong” will be held at Openground from 13 June to 4 July.