Hong Kong Through Time:

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The then and now photography of HK Man

Top Twenty Images

Just want to see the best? I've picked out twenty of my favourite image pairs from the collection.

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Hoi Sham Park
Unknown date and July 2009

Probably my favourite set of all: aesthetically pleasing and captures the changing city skyline. The additional boulders have made lining the new shot up a problem - I'd love to know if HK Man took any at a slightly lower angle.

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Sheung Wan, Junction of Des Voeux Road Central and Rumsey Street
Post-war and Nov 2010

This pair of images really captures the transformation of Hong Kong: the dramatic and total change in architecture, and the explosion of towers in the distance. But the much-beloved tram provides some continuity between the two images.

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Upper Albert Road and Albany Road
1964 and Nov 2010

This set shows the intense three dimensionality that I love about Hong Kong. The red and white colour scheme of taxis visible in both images endures today, and inspired the colours of this website.

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Kowloon Walled City, at the junction of Tung Tau Tsuen and Tai Shing roads
c.1970s and Dec 2008

This area of shops and housing on the left was part of Kowloon Walled City. The Walled City was an incredibly dense urban enclave that was essentially self-policing. A maze of alleyways between inter-connected high rise buildings, it was crammed with cheap housing and unregulated businesses. The site was finally cleared in 1994 and is now the home of a park. There's a brilliant book about it by photographer Greg Girard called City of Darkness.

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Wyndham Street and Wellington Street junction
c.1874 and Jan 2010

This is one of the oldest images in HK man's collection. The sign on the left is for the Hong Kong Photographic Rooms, a studio where customers could have portraits taken, or buy prints of scenes of Hong Kong. The original owner was an Emil Riisfeldt, who soon after left for a career in Australia. Unfortunately the negatives of his Hong Kong photography have not been found.

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The Panorama Gardens apartment building, Robinson Road
Unknown date and Sept 2009

HK man called this collection '香港在消失ing': Hong Kong is disappearing, and lamented the loss of the many old buildings of the city. He felt that the city was losing its special character, and beginning to look like every other city. Certainly some of his collection make it hard to disagree.

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The Central Market
Unknown date and Dec 2009

The old central market buildings was replaced in 1937 with the Bauhaus style building we can see here. It was then closed in 2003, to be destroyed to make room for high rise buildings, but protests won out and the building was granted protected heritage status. It's now undergoing redevelopment, though it's unclear what the future plan for the building is.

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Price Edward Road, West
Date unknown and Oct 2010

Quite the dramatic contrast here. Note the church has survived the intervening years, and peeks out from behind the new apartment building.

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Kennedy Town, now the junction of Cadogan Street and Catchick Street
Possibly around 1920 and July 2009

Another complete transformation, with only the tram lines providing continuity between the two eras.

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The Peak Tower
70s or 80s and August 2009

I love the science fiction styling of the original peak tram building. Thankfully they replaced it with something almost as unusual in shape.

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The Peak Tram
1890 and August 2009

An even older image of the tram. As an integrated part of the public transport system it also has the red and white branding.

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Ferry Street, 1972 and Jun 2011

An excellent example of land reclamation in the city. The people living in the apartment building must have been disappointed in the change of view. The building also as an interesting and distinctive lean.

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King's Road and Shipyard Lane, Quarry Bay
1980 and Jan 2011

Another example of human reconfiguration of Hong Kong's landscape: the hill in the older image was completly removed in the 1980's, making way for the white apartment buildings in the newer photograph.

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Star Ferry Bus Station, Tsim Sha Tsui
1966 and May 2011

While the bus station remains the same, the skyline behind it has changed dramatically.

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Wan Chai sports ground
c.1964 and Nov 2009

A great image showing how the residential architecture of the city has changed.

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Square Street
1960 and Apr 2010

HK Man also used stills from films - this colourful scene is taken from 1960's The World of Suzie Wong. The colour scheme of the building seems to have survived, perhaps coincidentally.

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Tsui Sing Lau Pagoda
Unknown date and Sept 2011

This is the Tsui Sing Lau Pagoda - the oldest surviving pagoda in Hong Kong.

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Sha Tin Station
1976 and Jul 2009

The first big renovation to Sha Tin was in 1980, preparing it for electric trains. A few years after that a large shopping centre was built on top of the station - Citylink Plaza.

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Ngau Tau Kok Road
c.1956 and Dec 2008

The intervening 55 years have completely changed the atmosphere of the area of these two images. The sign on the right in the older image reads 'Proposed site for government primary school'.

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Southern entrance to Tate's Cairn Tunnel
Date unknown and Jun 2009

Most of the collection is made up of street scenes, but there's also some great wide angle images like this. Most evident here is the transformation of the low rise housing into parkland, and the expansion of the high rise buildings. I'd be particularly fascinated to see this scene again in a few decades.