Stefan Irvine’s photographs seize the Hong Kong villages reclaimed by nature
Hong Kong
CNN
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Thick roots tumble throughout a dilapidated home, the snake-like trunks of a banyan tree framing the place the entrance door as soon as stood. Its partitions have been hollowed by many years of typhoons, monsoons and summer time humidity, now little greater than free, moss-covered stones and mortar mud. Vines tease by cracks within the foundations and fallen leaves litter the rotten floorboards.
This scene wouldn’t look misplaced deep within the Malaysian rainforest or the verdant foothills of India. However photographer Stefan Irvine snapped these photos only a stone’s throw from probably the most densely populated cities on the earth, a worldwide metropolis of steely skyscrapers and gridlocked site visitors.
Irvine, who has lived in Hong Kong since 2002, first stumbled throughout town’s deserted villages in 2012 whereas visiting a good friend within the New Territories, an unlimited space to town’s north. Accounting for over 85% of Hong Kong’s territory, the district is characterised by steep mountains, lengthy stretches of rugged shoreline and tree-covered nation parks.
“It made me query, ‘Why (had been) so many of those locations vacant in a spot like Hong Kong, the place the property costs are the best on the earth?’” Irvine recalled. Over the subsequent 12 years, the London-born photographer explored extra of those deserted villages, documenting what would grow to be the topic of his new guide, “Abandoned Villages of Hong Kong.”
“It’s opened my eyes to a distinct facet of Hong Kong,” stated Irvine. “That’s what I’m hoping the venture will do for different individuals as effectively.”
Though Irvine took the primary picture for the venture — an deserted house with vegetation spilling out onto the street by a yellow door body — in 2012, it wasn’t till 2019 that he started actively searching down places to {photograph}.
“These villages have existed in Hong Kong for a whole lot of years, manner earlier than the colonial interval,” defined Irvine. Within the Nineteen Fifties and ‘60s, as Hong Kong grew as an industrial hub, many individuals migrated to the quickly increasing city facilities for higher working alternatives. “It’s onerous farming and fishing on the market in these distant areas, so lots of people moved to town to work within the factories,” he added.
By way of library analysis, the 48-year-old photographer discovered individuals who grew up within the villages or had family members who lived there. Within the guide, he included essays from two ladies related to the village: one whose father grew up in Wong Chuk Shan village, now utterly overgrown, and one other who spent a number of years of her childhood in Lai Chi Wo village, on the northeast coast of Hong Kong within the Seventies.
“Now she lives within the UK together with her family, however she comes again to go to HK each few years, and nonetheless feels a deep sense of reference to Lai Chi Wo,” Irvine stated of the latter lady, including: “You may inform they really feel an intense bond with their ancestors and with the village itself.”
Whereas lots of the villages emptied out slowly over many years, Irvine discovered some houses that appeared to have been “deserted fairly quickly,” with private gadgets and furnishings left behind.
“There have been calendars on the wall, faculty certificates in drawers — it’s fairly poignant,” stated Irvine.
“I feel lots of people left with the intention of coming again at some point, or perhaps retiring again within the village. However if you happen to don’t keep these properties, ultimately they’ll succumb to nature. Termites will begin to burrow their manner into the picket beams. If a kind of collapses, then the seeds can fall in from timber and vegetation, after which they actually take over.”
Rotting floorboards and unstable masonry made a few of the constructing harmful to discover. For Irvine, the largest threat was posed by territorial village canine that always turned aggressive as he walked by distant areas. “I began the behavior of carrying canine biscuits in my digital camera bag once I went out to those locations,” he stated.
The venture took Irvine to the furthest reaches of town, utilizing minibuses and ferries to entry remoted cities and islands. One journey noticed him embark on a six-hour spherical journey to Tung Ping Chau, a far-flung island nearer to the Chinese language mainland than to Hong Kong. As soon as a thriving fishing and farming community, most residents left the island within the Sixties to make a residing within the metropolis. Irvine ended up utilizing only one picture from the journey in his guide — however the journey was “completely value it,” he stated.
Whereas a lot of the villages Irvine photographed are deserted, he was stunned to find not all had been.
“I’d hike for about an hour into the wilderness to seek out an exquisite previous village and I assumed there can be no one there — after which across the nook can be somebody with a wheelbarrow on their option to plant greens or one thing. In order that was a little bit of a shock,” he stated.
Two of his favourite places to shoot — Luk Keng, a coastal space close to the border with Shenzhen in mainland China, and Lai Chi Wo, a distant 400-year-old Hakka village accessible solely by boat or a two-hour hike by the forest — are each nonetheless house to small communities.
“Lai Chi Wo is sort of fascinating as a result of (Hong Kong’s) authorities has realized the heritage worth on this village and so they’ve invested a considerable amount of cash to revitalize a few of the previous buildings,” stated Irvine. “They need to encourage younger individuals to go on the market and keep in a single day and to expertise a distinct facet of Hong Kong.”
Irvine discovered different abandoned villages that had been additionally being revitalized for tourism. Yim Tin Tsai, a former catholic missionary outpost and salt farming group, is totally deserted — however each summer time, it hosts an artwork set up and pageant.
“Folks take somewhat sampan (a flat-bottomed boat) throughout the water, it’s quarter-hour away from (the coast), and so they can work together with these artwork installations that use a few of the deserted websites to nice impact,” Irvine stated.
Irvine believes there’s a rising sentimentality and nostalgia amongst Hong Kong’s individuals “to avoid wasting and relish their constructed heritage.” These rural websites are a key a part of that, he stated, including: “I feel it’s of nice worth to individuals and their sense of id.”
The photographer’s guide, revealed this month alongside an accompanying exhibition in Hong Kong, goals to “protect for posterity” this constructed heritage. And whereas Irvine’s photos converse to a lack of group, he views them as a “celebration” of nature, too.
Hong Kong is likely one of the most biodiverse cities on the earth, and its villages, which had been typically constructed round pure options and relied on the land, are a microcosm of that. Tucked between the mountains and the ocean, the Hakka village at Lai Chi Wo, as an illustration, options mature woodlands, freshwater streams, agricultural wetlands, mud flats and mangroves.
“On the finish of the day, nature will ultimately take over,” Irvine stated. “It’s a reminder of the impermanence that all of us expertise: Issues come and go, nothing endures actually.”
“Abandoned Villages of Hong Kong,” revealed by Blue Lotus Editions, is obtainable now. An accompanying exhibition is on present at Hong Kong’s Blue Lotus Gallery till Feb. 25, 2024.