Billy H.C. Kwok
Conversations & Sharing
Art Basel Hong Kong:
Learning from the New Wave: Charting Alternative Futures for Art in Hong Kong
What alternative models and spaces are a new wave of cultural practitioners developing in Hong Kong and how? This roundtable invites a trailblazing group of young artists, curators, and directors to talk about the work they are doing to create sites of gathering and alternative structures of support for art and culture in the city. Tomorrow Maybe New Park Current Plans Hosted by Asia Art Archive, cultural partner of Art Basel Hong Kong
@ Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong
【History Salon】 Overseas Chinese Merchants: Aw Boon Haw and the Tiger Balm Mansion
@ Royal Photographic Society,
337 Paintworks, Bristol, England
Hong Kong has been a crucial site for connecting overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia with China. This History Salon focuses on the story of Aw Boon Haw, the founder of Tiger Balm and Singdao Daily. He began his medical business in Singapore and shifted the headquarter to Hong Kong in the 1930s. He became one of the most successful overseas Chinese merchants by investing in philanthropy, architecture, and media. So, why did he come to Hong Kong? How did overseas investment shape the history of Hong Kong and modern China? Kelvin Chan will discuss the patterns of Chinese migration, explore the connections between China, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia, and highlight the lasting legacies of Aw through the Tiger-Balm Mansion. In addition, photographer Billy H.C. Kwok will share the ways he employs AI generation software to contest the memories and imaginations of the Tiger Balm Mansion, and how the derivative memories from these AI-generated images traverse between reality and illusion.
CUHK: Public Talk Series of Media Professionals in Residence Programme – 2024 Spring
In this talk, participants learn how independent photojournalist Billy Kwok Ho Chung takes an investigative approach and storytelling perspective in reporting news through the prism of photography, archival material and objects. Billy’s expertise on photography has earned him numerous reputations, including the Foam Talent artist in 2021, W. Eugene Smith Grant Finalist in 2010, and Magnum Foundation fellow in 2018 and 2019.
＠ School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong,
Hong Kong
Hong Kong International Photo Festival:
Photography Salon #07
@ Koon Man Space, Hong Kong
Numerous images and issues have surfaced that are creating public discourse on photojournalism. In an age of information-overload, we are surrounded by news and many media around said news; how should we read the symbols in them? From the perspective of a photojournalist, what are your considerations in the shooting and the news reporting? What about the post-production and editorial? In this upcoming Photography Salon session, we have invited photographer Billy Kwok and former photojournalist and editor, current university lecturer Eric Tsang to discuss the process of preparing for their assignment, editorial considerations, as well as the varying presentations based on the changing news mediums, from which they explore ways to engage in visual storytelling. Hong Kong Photographic Culture Association is financially supported by the HKADC
World Press Photo Exhibition Talk:
How did photo stories come about?
A conversation with three photojournalists
＠ Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre, Hong Kong
What are the differences in storytelling between single photos and picture essays? How do photographers decide on a topic of a series, and how do they select and arrange the images for their narrative? In this sharing, Kyle Lam of the Hong Kong Free Press, and independent photojournalists Billy H. C. Kwok and Harry Leung who have collaborated with numerous local and international media outlets are among the speakers. Nathan Tsui, a writer and photo editor, will lead the conversation. They will discuss their photo projects, from concept to shooting to editing to display, as well as the possibilities of photo essays.
The unspeakable Hong Kong: through the prism of individual, collective and daily objects
@ Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies,
Lund University, Sweden
Based in Hong Kong and Taiwan, Billy’s work is an inquiry on humans, places, and identifications in the context of history and the city’s deep-rooted power structure. Looking into the emotive as well as the factual contradictions of undermined individuals and collectives within a city(s) overwhelmed by capital and commerce, and hopes to connect all people through sharing stories of simple yet exceptional everyday struggles.
Asia as Method Talk #1
Billy H.C. Kwok:
A Photographic Investigation of Taiwan
Join us for a talk with photographer Billy H.C. KWOK who will share his method of doing a photographic investigation into a dark chapter of Taiwan's hidden history during the political suppression and dictatorship of 1949 - 1991. Dr. Yan Wang Preston, Photographer and Lecturer of Photography at University of Huddersfield will join us to have a discussion with Billy.
＠ Manchester School of Art,
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, England
WMA Open Talk Series:
Documentary Photography x
Archives
＠ WMA, Hong Kong
All forms of photography are acts of archiving, yet not all archives are in the form of photography. When artists shuttle between factual documentation and subjective storytelling, when they transform archival records into creative works, in what ways do those two spectrums integrate? How are the works constructed? And what derivative values do those works bring? When exploring archives and documentary photography in parallel, how will the notions of truth and history affect one’s treatment to photography? And how will the subject of authorship be considered when interpreting archives? In our upcoming talk, titled ‘Documentary Photography x Archives’, photographers Billy H.C. Kwok and Lee Wing Ki will join Taiwan-based image scholar Kuo Li-Hsin to discuss these questions. Using Kwok’s Magnum Foundation supported project 'Last Letters' - a photographic investigation of Taiwan white terror and Lee’s works 'Tsang’s Odyssey' and 'Faded' as departure points, the talk will explore mutual influences between Hong Kong and Taiwan in terms of archive images, historical memory and identity politics. The talk will be conducted in Chinese.
台灣文化總會：
台灣新聞攝影講座
【長期攝影計畫 - 規劃與實踐】
@ 文總二樓 城南空間NO.2, 台北
身處於影像氾濫的年代，卻有一群專業攝影工作者，在自身工作之餘，持續記錄這片土地發生的各種現象，以影像表現他們內心裡所認知的世界。而這樣的能力，在現今社會十分稀缺。由於協會今年出版選輯12年來台灣新聞攝影大賽得獎作品，雖藉此一窺十年台灣社會變遷，但是為探索更深層的影像意義，我們特地規劃找尋當代具有代表性的各世代攝影師，來談論長期攝影的計畫是如何發想以及執行，希望能夠為下一個世代的攝影新血，提供一盞引路燈。 ...
