Hedda Morrison: Photos of Hong Kong

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 it’s 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. This 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.This book is co-published with Harvard-Yenching Library, Harvard University. 

Publisher: Hong Kong University Press 

Hardback

2005

ISBN: 9789622097544