TRANSITION

Finalist

Billy H.C. Kwok - Hong Kong: After the Handover

Billy H.C. Kwok 1 July 2017, the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China, President Xi Jinping visited Hong Kong for the first time since he took office. Citizens gathered on both sides of the harbour to enjoy the largest fireworks show. There is a saying in...
Billy H.C. Kwok A man golfing in front of residential buildings and construction sites. The identity crisis of Hong Kong people gradually surfaced after the reunification. Family members of previous generations are often directly, or indirectly related to the Great...
Billy H.C. Kwok Two “new” child Hongkongers playing outside a shack on the rooftop. The Gini coefficient reached the highest in 45 years in 2016, indicating an increasing wealth gap. Hong Kong has been ranked the city with the highest housing prices in the world....
Billy H.C. Kwok Real estate agents gathering at the flat selling points, waiting for the sales draw. Media outlets regarded this as a repeat of the 1997 housing market hype. Over the years, people from the Chinese mainland have replaced Hongkongers as the target of these...
Billy H.C. Kwok Leung Fook-yuen, Chair of the Yuen Long Shap Pat Heung Rural Committee riding a horse and enjoying bell apples on the eco-farm he operates. Limited land resources is one of the core conflicts in Hong Kong. Those who own land and development rights have...
Billy H.C. Kwok A host at a bar in Lan Kwai Fong receiving a few guests from the mainland. With an increasing number of visitors from China, many bars have adapted their decorations and designs to suit the consumption patterns of such visitors.
Billy H.C. Kwok The day before the 20th anniversary of the reunification, people were having dinner in a restaurant. Outside, the Chinese national flag and the HKSAR flag were flying in the wind.
Billy H.C. Kwok A demonstrator holding a firebrand and confronting the police. The 2014 Umbrella Movement failed to obtain universal suffrage for Hong Kong. Social movements hit rock bottom. The widening wealth gap limited upward mobility among younger generations....
Billy H.C. Kwok Prior to 1 July, the HKSAR government and pro-establishment camp worked closely to get ready for the 20th anniversary of the reunification. Chinese national flags, HKSAR flags, big red lanterns and light displays with celebratory slogans could be found...
Billy H.C. Kwok President Xi having his three-day visit to Hong Kong for the first time after his position. At the 30 June reunification dinner gathering, he led then Chief Executive CY Leung, Chief Executive-elect Carrie Lam and other guests in singing “Ode to the...

Biography

Billy H.C. KWOK (b. 1989, Hong Kong) is an independent photographer. With a BA degree in Media and Communication from City University of Hong Kong, Kwok began his career as a newspaper journalist before pursuing his photographic career. In his journey, images became a more intuitive and engaging medium for him to tell stories beyond syntax. His works focus on human rights in modern-day migration, and contemporary conditions deeply-rooted in power structures among Asian countries.

His work has been published on The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The Washington Post, Time Magazine, Libération, The Globe and MailUSA Today, National Post among others.

Kwok is highly observant and adaptable to cultural and environmental diversity. Apart from generating still images, he works both individually and collaboratively for multimedia storytelling.

Project Statement

Hong Kong was promised “50 years of changelessness”—a transformative and unique indicator for its transition. Every day since the handover, society has been infiltrated with minute changes that cannot expressed, ranging from the development of hardware, to the rise and fall of ideologies. Instead of outlining history, this work aims to document transitions in different facets of society, from singing “God Save the Queen” (the national anthem of British Hong Kong) to humming “people are slaves no more” (lyrics from the Chinese national anthem); from being old migrants to becoming new Hongkongers; and from making money as property agents to gaining power as rural landlords. This body of work is created to portray a wandering status of Hong Kong—referencing Beijing, and the ghosts of uncertainty that haunt the journey ahead.