Street photographer Greg Girard to pass on his skills in a Hong Kong x Taipei workshop

‘It’s about losing yourself in a place’ is top tip for budding street photographers from Canadian who’s shot Asian cityscapes for 50 years

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Detail from Plaza Grill and Wine, 1974, Hong Kong, shot by Greg Girard and an example of the street photography that is the subject of a workshop, split between Hong Kong and Taipei, that he will be hosting later this year. Photo: Greg Girard

Published: 6:15pm, 9 Aug 2024Updated: 9:41am, 10 Aug 2024

In the summer of 1974, Canadian Greg Girard, then aged 18, boarded a freighter from San Francisco to Hong Kong, arriving 18 days later to start what would become a love affair with East Asia that continues to this day.

“It’s wild to think that it has been 50 years since I first landed in Hong Kong,” says Girard via Zoom from his home city, Vancouver. Almost exactly five decades to the day, in fact: the immigration stamp in his passport reads August 4, 1974.

“I travelled by freighter because I wanted to get a sense of the distance I was travelling. It was a popular form of travel back then but has since died out,” he says.

Girard was to spend the next few decades in the region, photographing the evolving landscapes of some of Asia’s largest cities – Tokyo, Shanghai, Bangkok – during the latter part of the 20th century.

Golden Lion Bar, Wan Chai, Hong Kong 1974. Photo: Greg Girard/Blue Lotus Gallery

Hong Kong was home for almost two decades from 1982, the city’s neon-soaked streets, bars and nightclubs his focus, as seen in his book HK:PM Hong Kong 1974-1989.

He also photographed luminaries of Hong Kong cinema such as Wong Kar-wai and Chow Yun-fat on film sets in the 1980s.