1950s Hong Kong Street Photography

I recently came across a book filled with some of the most amazing images I’ve ever seen of 1950s Hong Kong street photography. Called A Hong Kong Memoir, these photographs were captured by a teenager, Ho Fan, who arrived in Hong Kong from Shanghai in 1949. Armed with a simple Rolleiflex camera, he managed to “see” Hong Kong as it was but will never be again.

Containing some of my favorite photographic elements – black and white, film, travel, street photography – Ho’s images are at once inviting and haunting of a world few of us will ever experience. I find myself staring at each of these images not for seconds but for long minutes.

From modernbook.com, “Award-wining photographer Fan Ho has won 280 awards from international exhibitions and competitions worldwide since 1956. Ho has been elected Fellow of the Photographic Society of America, Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, England; Honorary Member of the Photographic Societies of Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Brazil, Argentina, Singapore and etc, and was honored with One-Man-Shows in the above countries. Ho’s works can be seen and have been published in many International Photographic Annuals all over the world.”