Hong Kong International Photo Festival 2022

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Hong Kong International Photo Festival returns this month, with main programme Off-sets: Photographies of Hong Kong Cinema, the fourth edition of Satellite Exhibitions and a Weekend Market.

This year’s Satellite Exhibitions gather 6 exhibitions to continue experimenting with common venues and various spaces in the city to create new photographic encounters for audiences of different ages and backgrounds. Halfway through the festival, we will have the Weekend Market which showcases an array of creative works and products from 18 local vendors and 4 overseas partners, on top of numerous public programmes ranging from sharings, discussions to zine-making experience.

Off-sets: Photographies Of Hong Kong Cinema
This is not a film stills exhibition, at least not in the usual sense.

HKIPF 2022 main exhibition ‘Off-sets: Photographies of Hong Kong Cinema’ brings together 12 image makers, many of whom have contributed to shaping the Hong Kong cinescape through their roles as directors, art directors, cinematographers, production and stills photographers, costume and set designers, and journalists. Their expansive use of photography results in a broad range of visual constructions that reflect varying means and intentions.

The ensemble include in-house production photographer Fong Ho Yuen; photojournalist of City Entertainment Magazine (formerly Film Bi-weekly) Lo Yuk Ying and their staff photographer Louie Wong; multidisciplinary artists Wing Shya; Christopher Doyle; Tim Yip; Man Lim Chung; stills photographers Jupiter Wong, Okazaki Hirotake — and representing a younger generation, Karen Cloudy Tang, Sharon Salad and Justine Yeung.

As a narrative medium, images detached from the cinematic realm take on a life and direction of their own, gaining new meanings, and provoking queries and reflections on the industry, its people, and the environment in which they operate and create. Distinct as they are, here they come together to voice a tender yet steadfast dissent to the predominant on-screen narratives through which our reality is presented.

The exhibition is accompanied by an opening talk facilitated by exhibition consultant Dr Fiona Law, In-the-Moment Filmmaking Workshop facilitated by artist Wing Shya, weekly docent tours (available in English, Cantonese and Mandarin), as well as the Bookshelf, a special book corner co-curated with Kubrick at their Yau Ma Tei bookshop.

Satellite Exhibitions
The Satellite Exhibitions project has evolved since its conception in 2018. Initially our response to the lack of exhibition spaces was to invite image makers to utilise everyday space to create photographic encounters. In recent years, we have also placed equal focus in nurturing local creative forces by introducing regular group critique sessions and exhibition design and production consultations.

Through an open call for “Satellite Exhibitions 2022”, we selected six bodies of work that present distinctive perspectives on Hong Kong’s past and present, including a cross-generation dialogue between father and son, observations of a nursing student during the pandemic, and a second-generation emigrant’s re-envisage of home and land inspired by objects retrieved from demolished villages in the Northeast New Territories. Venues are diverse as always – be they an old mall in North Point, a little shop at a back alley in Wan Chai, bookstores in Sai Kung and Yau Ma Tei and an independent art space in Sheung Wan, it is a good opportunity to explore facets of Hong Kong through the eyes of various local image makers in different neighbourhoods.

Weekend Market
Fostering conversations and bringing visibility to budding endeavours of our image making community, the Weekend Market welcomed 18 local businesses, makers, artists, collectives, and publishers to showcase an array of works and products, including camera equipment and supplies, photobooks, independent publications, printed matter, accessories and unique items. 4 overseas organisations are also invited as partners to present a selection of works from their countries and offer insights on print-based medium, its production and ecosystems. They are Gueari Galeri, photobook gallery and independent publisher from Indonesia; PAPER MATTER, artists’ books research unit and archive from Taiwan; Thing Books, organiser of the annual Singapore Art Book Fair; and Matca, a photographer-led space and publisher from Vietnam.

Among the booths, you may find a Zine-making Station operated by ZINE COOP, with tools and materials ready for you to create something on the spot and get a taste of self-publishing. Directly above the courtyard at the L2 Terrace are publications and printed matter curated by our overseas partners, as well as the Reading Corner, an open space for all visitors to zone/hang out with friends and books. Throughout the weekend at the L7 Activity Room and Festival home base, photobook authors, experimental printers, independent publishers, book fair organiser, researcher/archivist and art collectives from Hong Kong and overseas will share their experience and knowledge through talks and discussion sessions.

ABOUT THE ARTIST / ORGANISER

Hong Kong International Photo Festival (HKIPF) was launched in 2010. In each edition, the Festival focuses on a different theme, bringing together local and overseas photographers to discuss manifold issues and perspectives. Through a wide range of public programmes, the Festival promotes creative practices as means to deepen our connection to the environments we live in and the people we live with.

HKIPF is organised by the Hong Kong Photographic Culture Association, founded in 2009 by 19 Hong Kong photographers and awarded the 2011 Hong Kong Arts Development Council Award for Arts Promotion. Since 2014, the Association has been financially supported by the Springboard Grant under the Arts Capacity Development Funding Scheme and since 2018 the Art Development Matching Grants Scheme of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government