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Kwak Yeon-soo

Stefan Irvine is not the only photographer to document Hong Kong’s abandoned villages. He is a member of the so-called urbex movement – “urbex” being a portmanteau of urban and exploration.
The movement took off during the Covid-19 pandemic as Hongkongers made adventures out of exploring their small city from every possible angle.
However, the London-born photographer’s work documenting the lesser known parts of rural Hong Kong began more than a decade ago.
His work features in a new book and in a solo exhibition at Blue Lotus Gallery, in Hong Kong’s Sheung Wan neighbourhood.
I enjoy thinking about what’s happened before and things that have gone past and how it affects what’s going on today
Stefan Irvine
Irvine was immediately intoxicated by the energy and the sense of possibility in Hong Kong upon visiting the city in 1999.
“I was working in London as a freelance photographer after I graduated [from university]. I had some small amounts of success there, but it was quite difficult to really break into the newspaper and magazine industry.

“So I was always thinking about the possibility of Hong Kong and then finally I decided to come back and try to be a freelance photographer here. After staying in Hong Kong for a while, I just fell in love with the place and I’m still here,” he says.
He was initially drawn to human interest and contemporary topics.
But in time, the now 47-year-old became more concerned with conservation and heritage.

“I just find [the historical aspects of Hong Kong] to be the most attractive and most charming for my photography. When I was younger, I did not have much interest in history. But now I enjoy thinking about what’s happened before and things that have gone past and how it affects what’s going on today,” he says.
There are two texts in the book based on interviews with people who lived in the village themselves and with the children of those who grew up in the village.
Irvine began photographing abandoned villages in 2012, but it was in 2019 that he became fully focused on the project. So far, he has visited more than 30 supposedly haunted villages.
When I’m in villages taking photographs, I wouldn’t ever manipulate the scene
Stefan Irvine
How does he find all the sites to photograph?
“I would go to the library and look at old historical land surveys and try to find good sites for photographing these ruins. I also use maps online. Even the Hong Kong government’s mapping service has quite a lot of good resources and it will mark some ruined buildings in various villages. So that’s been very useful,” he says.
Among the most remote of the Hong Kong villages he has visited to photograph are So Lo Pun, Yung Shue Au and the partly restored Lai Chi Wo in Plover Cove Country Park, in the northeast of Hong Kong.

“It’s just quite eerie when you’re there. You’ve got these kind of slightly spooky houses looking a bit forlorn and forgotten,” he says.
He photographs not only abandoned buildings, but furniture and personal items too.
He occasionally takes drone photographs to show the setting of a village.

Irvine believes in preservation through visual documentation.
“It’s part of a documentation of what’s happening in the city and what’s disappearing. So when I’m in villages taking photographs, I wouldn’t ever manipulate the scene. I wouldn’t rearrange any items into style. That doesn’t work for me.”
He adds: “I love the way the Hong Kong landscape is very three-dimensional. So you can go up a skyscraper and have a completely new perspective on a neighbourhood you know really well.
“Then you’ve got the mountains and the countryside. So it’s just incredibly diverse, varied and vibrant. There’s always something new happening around every corner and different to see. As a photographer, it’s very gratifying,” he says.
“Abandoned Villages of Hong Kong,” Blue Lotus Gallery, G/F, 28 Pound Lane, Sheung Wan, Tues-Sun, 11am – 6pm. Until Feb 25.


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Hong Kong’s abandoned villages the ‘spooky’ subject of a new photo book and exhibition that document ‘what’s disappearing’ in the city

A photograph taken by Stefan Irvine, the photographer and urban explorer behind “Abandoned Villages of Hong Kong”, in Pun Uk, Yuen Long. Photo: courtesy of Stefan Irvine/Blue Lotus Gallery

An abandoned house in Mau Ping Shan Uk village, Ma On Shan, Hong Kong, photographed by Stefan Irvine. His work documenting abandoned Hong Kong villages is the subject of a new book and an exhibition at Blue Lotus Gallery in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong. Photo:  courtesy of Stefan Irvine/Blue Lotus Gallery

Irvine, originally from London, fell in love with and later moved to Hong Kong after visiting in 1999. Photo: courtesy of Blue Lotus Gallery

The cover of Irvine’s book. Photo: courtesy of Blue Lotus Gallery

A Hindu temple in Queen’s Hill, Fanling, one of the abandoned villages photographed by Stefan Irvine. Photo: courtesy of Stefan Irvine/Blue Lotus Gallery

An old chair at an abandoned property in Pun Uk, Yuen Long, photographed by Irvine. Photo: courtesy of Stefan Irvine/Blue Lotus Gallery

360-year-old abandoned Hong Kong Hakka village is born again – the award-winning revitalisation of Mui Tsz Lam

Thomas Chung (left), associate professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong School of Architecture, and Tsang Yuk-on, village representative of Mui Tsz Lam, at the revitalised Hakka village near the mainland China border. Photo: 
Wong Kam-sing, former Hong Kong secretary for the environment and ecology

A volunteer gets hands-on experience in rammed-earth construction at Mui Tsz Lam. Photo: CUHK School of Architecture

Mui Tsz Lam has no road access. Photo: CUHK School of Architecture

Tsang’s family home, dubbed “Old House” for the project, was one of two houses chosen to be Project Plum Grove’s proof of concept. Photo: CUHK School of Architecture

Human Ip’s bird mural can be seen on a wall outside Mural House. Photo: CUHK School of Architecture

The vitalised Mural House’s rammed-earth walls. Photo: CUHK School of Architecture

The scaffolding system remains in the interior of Old House. Photo: CUHK School of Architecture

In Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter, Hong Kong’s past and present meet: photo essay

The floating Tin Hau temple (centre, foreground) in the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter against the backdrop of Kowloon (rear) and Tin Hau (right) on the north shore of Hong Kong Island. Photo: Antony Dickson

Light is reflected off the water at the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter, the oldest in Hong Kong. Photo: Antony Dickson

The floating Tin Hau temple (centre, foreground) in the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter against the backdrop of Kowloon (rear) and Tin Hau (right). Photo: Antony Dickson

A man washes himself at the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter. Photo: Antony Dickson

A boat woman goes about her daily duties at the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter. Luxury yachts are moored in the background. Photo: Antony Dickson

Boats bob in the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter at night. Yachts mix with sampans in the shelter. Photo: Antony Dickson

A sampan makes its way across the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter at night. Photo: Antony Dickson

A great egret lands on a small boat moored in the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter. Photo: Antony Dickson

The sun sets at Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter with the towers of Central district in the background. Photo: Antony Dickson

Bumper tyres serve as fenders on a boat at the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter. Photo: Antony Dickson

A juvenile black-crowned night heron perches on a boat moored at the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter. Photo: Antony Dickson

A small religious statue looks out on the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter. Photo: Antony Dickson

Homage to Hokusai in Lion Rock photo series by French photographer that shows the Hong Kong mountain from different aspects

One of the images from ‘Thirty-six Views of Lion Rock’, an exhibition by Hong Kong-based French photographer Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze showing the peak in Kowloon as a backdrop to Hong Kong life. Photo: Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze/Blue Lotus Gallery

Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze, a French photographer based in Hong Kong, poses with, in the distance, Lion Rock as a backdrop. Photo: Nora Tam

An image from Jacquet-Lagrèze’s latest collection shows a busy Hong Kong market with Lion Rock in the background. Photo: Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze/Blue Lotus Gallery

‘Thirty-six Views of Lion Rock’ features the iconic peak as a backdrop to various aspects of Hong Kong life. Photo: Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze/Blue Lotus Gallery

The collection features Lion Rock obscured by Hong Kong’s urban landscape, but also in a more serene light. Photo: Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze/Blue Lotus Gallery

Jacquet-Lagrèze says that Lion Rock reminds him of going to family gatherings, when he used to see the crouching lion atop the mountain, quietly watching over the city. Photo: Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze/Blue Lotus Gallery

Lifestyle

Arts & Culture

Photographs of remote and deserted settlements, and interviews with former inhabitants, feature in Abandoned Villages of Hong Kong, a book by Stefan Irvine
The book accompanies a photo exhibition at Blue Lotus Gallery by the British urban explorer, whose goal is to record the city’s past before it is gone for good


In his new photo book Abandoned Villages of Hong Kong, British urban explorer Stefan Irvine documents ‘eerie’ deserted buildings and furniture found inside them to preserve the memory of them.


Photography

History of Hong Kong districts

Old Hong Kong

Hong Kong