aspiration-like photography captures recollections of hong kong

fantasy metropolis by the harbour: a nostalgic artbook

 

Launched as a 64-website page artbook, Cody Ellingham’s ‘Fantasy City by the Harbour’ is an exploration of Hong Kong’s architecture and people’s memories of the bustling town most recognized for its dizzying substantial-rises, densely packed urban neighbourhoods, and vivid nocturnal cityscapes. Ellingham’s pictures and accompanying small stories seem further than these very first impressions to much better fully grasp the tale of the metropolis. Stripping again the crowded and noisy streets to carve out quiet moments of introspection, the photographer captures moonlight peering via an old condominium block in Yau Ma Tei, misty lights blazing out across the harbour, and remnants of an previous airport silhouetted towards the skyline. The artbook has a solid cinematic impact, encouraged by the golden age of Hong Kong cinema from the 1980s by way of to the early 2000s. This comes by in the images’ procedure of colour and composition as the tale winds as a result of the architecture and material of the city.

peaceful times of reflection are captured in Fantasy Town by the Harbour

all images by Cody Ellingham

 

 

cody ellingham evokes dream-like memories of hong kong

 

‘Fantasy Town by the Harbour’ is a fond recollection of Cody Ellingham’s recollections from his possess repeated travels to the metropolis though dwelling overseas. The New Zealand centered photographer says the challenge arrived out of a deep craving for travel which has been set on maintain for the past number of decades thanks to Covid-19 limits. Presently settled in Wellington, Ellingham attracts parallels amongst his dwelling city and Hong Kong — both of those harbour metropolitan areas. ‘I often locate moments the place I catch a glimpse of some thing that reminds me of Hong Kong’, he states. Hunting again at the way Hong Kong has altered about time and reflecting on what the town means to him, the photographer responses:‘Though Hong Kong was in no way a spot I belonged to, I have constantly felt a relationship to it and a terrific feeling of nostalgia’.

 

He additional explains how the title for ‘Fantasy Metropolis by the Harbour’ will come from the strategy that there are two versions of Hong Kong — the one particular that exists in fact and the a person that we fondly recall in our recollections.‘I frequently marvel how we can get again to that other Hong Kong, of which only desires stay.’

the task is an exploration of Hong Kong’s architecture and people’s recollections of the bustling town

 

 

capturing dizzying significant-rises and nocturnal cityscapes

 

The confined collector’s edition of the artbook consists of signed photographs by Cody Ellingham as properly as a selection of artefacts and a printed airplane ticket to the extensive-defunct Kai Tak Airport in Kowloon. One of the illustrations or photos captures the remnants of the old airport silhouetted from Hong Kong’s bustling skyline. The photographer takes advantage of the framework as a focal level to the artwork as a way to vacation again to the previous Hong Kong that exists only in people’s memories. ‘For me Kai Tak Airport is the impression of previous Hong Kong: crowded, noisy, and complete of life’, he reflects.

 

‘Fantasy City by the Harbour’ follows Ellingham’s internationally successful New Zealand Nocturnes, Danchi Desires and Upcoming Metropolitan areas picture exhibitions. His most latest job, Wander the Night, is an audio-visual collaboration with Uk audio artist Simon James French, featuring soundscapes and images from nocturnal cities. Together with the artbook, the photographer is also soon launching a metaverse venture on Substrata. The Substrata metaverse, which is meant to evolve above time as the photographer progressively provides on to it, will be an ethereal position to develop an imagining and record of what Hong Kong was, and is, bringing with each other digital artefacts and photographs from the city into a digital environment that persons can examine and discover.

in a dream-like composition, moonlight friends by means of dense, dizzying towers