Product Details
Hardcover
300 pages
Hong Kong University Press, HKU
Published 2005
Book Description
In September 1946 the photographer Hedda Morrison arrived in Hong Kong, where she lived for six months – photographing the Colony’s transition from the despair and decay of the Japanese war years to the beginning of its postwar transformation. In recent years much acclaimed for her pre-war images of Peking, Morrison took in Hong Kong photographs that are a record of sensitivity, depth and vision. Arcaded colonial buildings, urban and natural landscapes caught her eye, as in greater measure did the crowded Chinese quarters, then almost entirely traditional. The harbour, Kowloon, old crafts, fishing and farming all were recorded. Indeed, throughout Hong Kong Hedda Morrison brought her direct, yet compassionate, gaze to bear – leaving an invaluable visual time-capsule for posterity.
This new book presents the best of her 1946-47 photographs, each of them telling documentary photographs and some of them art images. The book was developed and researched by Edward Stokes, who uncovered these Hedda Morrison negatives six years ago. His chapter texts and in-depth social and photographic context make the book memorable for those who know and care about Hong Kong. With superb photographic reproduction and striking design, the book also will delight photographic experts – and it will become a valuable reference for scholars of the period. The book is co-published with Harvard-Yenching Library, Harvard University. The Preface will be by Dr Raymond Lum, of Harvard-Yenching: ‘This book accords exactly with what the Library envisions as its role in the acquisition and stewardship of historic photographs of East Asia.’
About the Author
HEDDA MORRISON, the highly regarded photographer, was born in Germany in 1908; she died in Australia in 1991. Trained in photography during 1929 – 31 at Munich, she left for China in 1933. There she found her vocation, as a documentary photographer of great sensitivity and range, thus beginning decades of memorable work. EDWARD STOKES, an award-winning photographer and writer, was born in Australia. He grew up in Hong Kong and returned there in 1993. He is the photographer and author of various books on Australian history and exploration, and on Hong Kong’s heritage and landscape. Stokes’ previous works have all been keenly received. |
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