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The archiving impulse is one that attempts to trace, document, and make sense of the world. In response to the photographic archives of Hong Kong held by the University of Bristol and the University of Hong Kong, artists Billy H.C. Kwok, Jay Lau, and Lau Wai have developed new projects that interpret the archival stories of their home city, while revealing the gaps that exist.

What creative possibilities are offered by the gaps, absences, and silences in historical records? This spring, Aperture magazine presents “Counter Histories,” an issue produced in collaboration with Magnum Foundation and informed by our ongoing Counter Histories grant initiative, featuring photographers from around the world who tell powerful stories about complex social and political histories.

Just arrived! Happy that some of my prints has been acquired by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art for their collection! Thank you for the opportunities, and thank you to everyone who has supported me along the way!

In the context of this final exhibition chapter, ‘here and there’ evokes migratory movements, both historical and contemporary, within the context of Hong Kong’s transformation as a city. Such movements not only refer to the migrations of individuals, but also encompass the continuous changes that evolve with the concept of ‘home’. As such, the exhibition frames a fluid conception of ‘here’ from ‘there’ to negotiate the divide separating various histories as well as geographical distances.

For the first time ever, the @eugenesmithfund is holding a flash print sale featuring the work of 57 incredible photographers. All net proceeds will go towards their grant cycle. Prints are in museum quality, archival inkjet on 11x14 paper. Please support this important organization by picking up a print today!

The international artists in this exhibition confront difficult histories by reconstructing perspectives that have been omitted from previously accepted or official accounts. Their deeply personal visual narratives are reconstructed out of found images derived from family photo albums, books, magazines, or community archives. The works in Counter Histories ask probing questions about our construction of the past, such as, What new meanings are suggested by the absences and silences one finds in archives and historical records? How can artists engage with histories that are not photographed? How can these revisionist archives contribute to fuller understandings of the past and future?

談論紀實攝影（Documentary Photography），當攝影技術於十九世紀中葉誕生後，正值寫實主義的藝術思潮。香港早期以沙龍攝影為主流，隨歷年大量新聞事件，社會政治意識增強，追求真相，加上技術普及等因素，更多人投身紀實攝影，重視當中所記錄的歷史意義及人道關懷。 新聞與紀實攝影以現場目擊方式精確記錄真實，那麼在新聞自由、言論自由受壓的時代，又面對怎樣的掣肘或自主空間？ 在香港紀實攝影的作品中，郭浩忠（Billy H.C. Kwok）走一條不一樣的影像追尋的道路，從傳統的新聞紀實方式，轉到嘗試結合檔案的實踐和展陳，組織圖片故事，為求一針見血地把事實呈現眼前。 ...

ATLAS is the title of the 33rd edition of SI FEST – one of the longest-running photography festivals in Italy, directed for the third year by photographer Alex Majoli – inspired by the encyclopedic atlas of memory, Bilderatlas Mnemosyne , by the German art historian and critic Aby Warburg (Hamburg, 1866-1929). From 13 to 29 September 2024 – on the weekends of 13-15, 21-22 and 28-29 September – ATLAS will bring to Savignano sul Rubicone (Forlì-Cesena) exhibitions of national and international authors, meetings, portfolio readings, workshops and research on the broad and multi-readable theme of the archive. Involving international artists such as Richard Billingham, Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin, Stacy Kranitz, Abdulhamid Kircher, Billy HC Kwok, Adam Rouhana, Roland Schneider, Lindokuhle Sobekwa and internationally recognized Italian photographers such as Francesco Lughezzani & Archivio San Servolo and Maurizio Montagna , the 2024 edition of SI FEST presents itself as a visual atlas that offers a look at contemporaneity, exploring the continuities and transformations of society and its symbols, suggesting new possible interpretations .

What is photography if not the evidence of a moment transpired? For Hong Kong-based photographer, Billy H.C.Kwok, this is the aspect of photo-making that fascinates him the most. Along with uncovering trajectories of historic events, in a conversation with the 2019 Magnum Foundation Fellow and Grantee, we discover aspects of storytelling that are often lost in the pursuit of a ‘decisive moment.’

The 20th edition of The Sovereign Asian Art Prize presented the public of Hong Kong at H Queen’s - featuring shortlisted artworks from 30 contemporary artists from regions across Asia-Pacific, with Hong Kong being the most strongly represented with 9 artists shortlisted.

A photograph, a moment captured. A pair of eyes opens and closes. A story of how a mother searches for a son who got lost, and another individual’s attempt to make sense of the worlds that are built and fabricated, how they collide and weave into each other.

These letters come from all over the world, and the senders are from all provinces and counties across the country. When I opened the letter, the first thing that caught my attention was a portrait, followed by a handwritten letter. Sometimes you will find that the photos are portraits of the same person, but sent from different provinces, and sometimes they are the expressions and gestures of the same person in the previous and next photos, also from different addresses. The senders all claimed that the person in the photo was the missing person himself. They were all playing another person and at the same time presenting their imagination of another identity. An identity constructed in this way makes a person seem more dehumanized. I remember reading a very earnest sentence in a letter: "You will treat him as an object and cannot let him go."

The thickness of the photos accumulated over the years comes from the unknown origins of each subject. They are the ignored invisible masses, someone's son. This may be the rare portrait taken in their lives, but it is also Yu Ma's imagination and inner projection of the real situation of her missing son.

“She would see a homeless person, approach him and, after checking that it wasn’t her son, she would take a portrait of him. She would write the name, place and date on the Polaroids,” explains Kwok. “The disappearance of her son had led her to use techniques that resemble artistic practice,”

Photography, who is it for? That was the question we set out to explore with the 2022 festival. Monica Allende wanted to reflect on photography’s possibilities to influence positive change in society. The 33 international artists from 19 different countries embraced the theme and used Landskrona’s majestic historical buildings and open spaces to take us on a journey of visual exploration, using mixed formats to narrate a diversity of topics.

This year’s Talents present a close, sharp look at one of the most important subjects today: the human condition. While several of the submissions were born out of the Covid-19 pandemic, they offer beautiful, hopeful and refreshing statements on the power of photography to share our experience and – possibly – to effect a shift in perspective.

The letters had only 140 miles to travel, but they would take 60 years to be delivered. When his daughter finally received her father’s farewell after a protracted negotiation with Taiwan’s government, she was in her 60s, twice his age when he died. ‘‘I kept crying, because I could now read what my father had written,’’ said the daughter, Guo Su-jen. ‘‘If I’d never seen his writing, I would have no sense of him as a living person. His writing makes him alive again. Without it, he would live only in my imagination, how I picture him.’’

“I have to collect these things right now because they’re moving so fast and the next day they might disappear.” Kwok calls this work “a psychological response to my birthplace, a story about Hong Kong and me.” He also recognizes it as an attempt to process what is going on in Hong Kong in real time, to make sense of events that have turned life in the once-freewheeling city upside down.

Under the regime of dictator Chiang Kai-Shek, tens of thousands of people were arrested and killed in Taiwan between 1948 and 1987. However, the country has never come to terms with the “White Terror”. Photographer H. C. Kwok wants to change that with his pictures by giving the victims a voice.

The W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund is pleased to announce the list of finalists in the 41st annual W. Eugene Smith Grant for Humanistic Photography. Finalists have also been named in the Smith Fund’s 3rd annual Student category and 24th annual Howard Chapnick Grant, which is awarded to an individual for leadership in any field ancillary to photojournalism, such as picture editing, research, education and management.

Billy H.C. Kwok's work: Last Letters, A Photographic Investigation of White Terror has been awarded as Best Portfolio in "Photo ONE Taipei : International Festival of Photography and Images in 2019. Solo Exhibition will be held in the Dynasty Gallery.

What should we do with Chiang Kai-shek's controversial legacy? In a way, isn't he the origin of what is today the Taiwanese nation? Chiang Kai-shek's legacy remains controversial. Many would like to get rid of the statues representing him here and there.

Really excited to be selected as a Main Prize Honorable Mention of Phmuseum 2020 Photography Grant! Thank you Magnum Foundation for all the support along the way in producing this project!

Magnum Foundation’s Photography and Social Justice Program expands diversity and creativity in the field of documentary photography through capacity-building and critical explorations of photography and social change.

Hong Kong is home to hundreds of thousands of women from Indonesia and the Philippines who work as “helpers” in pursuit of meager wealth. They are an indispensable part of the city’s vibrant economy and society. But incidents of abuse often stay hidden from public view. Follow one woman’s tale as she seeks to put her life back together after a horrific crime