HOMELESS MAN. TAI KOK TSUI. KOWLOON
In April and May, 2019 I photographed in the backstreets and alleyways of Hong Kong and Kowloon, China. Mostly in Kowloon. Kowloon is the gritty sibling of flashier Hong Kong although Hong Kong has its share of grit. It isn’t hard to be drawn to these alleys. Walking down a street amazed by the sights and sounds and suddenly there is the opening to an alleyway. It’s dark and dirty and scary. Enter in and you are lost in the backside of the city. This is where the restaurants clean their dishes and their fish. This is where stores unpack their goods and where the recycling ladies gather up the cardboard and styrofoam. This is where the workers squat for their smoke break or nod off between shifts. This is where the poor and homeless find shelter. Step carefully. Look up to the old apartments hanging over you. Peer into doorways leading to other doorways. Don’t trip over the old man sleeping in the corner. You have left the busy streets behind and feel like time has stopped. How old are these walls? What lives and stories are hidden behind these locked doors and barred windows? Water seeps from old pipes. Exhaust fans blow out the heat and the smell of cooking from the restaurants. Chinese music comes through open windows above. And you are as much an oddity as everything that you are marveling at. Workers smile and nod at you and take time to watch as you photograph the laundry hanging above doorways, the plants sprouting from cracks in the walls, the mysterious Chinese calligraphy fading into moss covered walls. A cook stirring a giant wok over an open flame looks up at you for a moment. No fear. People go about their business and let you go about yours. One alley leads to another and another sometimes taking you out into the bright light of the main street. Look around. Change direction. Find another entrance and you are lost again…
Special thanks to Kitty Mok for her linguistic and logistical support without which I would be lost in the alleyways to this day...
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the expressed permission of Catherine Biernis