Born in Shanghai in 1932, Fan Ho later moved to Hong Kong with his family, where he began to take photographs using a Rolleiflex given to him by his father. Initially, Fan Ho considered photography an engaging pastime. But as he roamed the streets and alleyways of Hong Kong, he was drawn to the city and its inhabitants.

Whether it is the slums of Hong Kong, its pulsing city streets, or a light-filled stairwell, the patterns of daily life are the inspiration for Fan Ho’s still photographs. Inspired by the Bauhaus point of view and a strong sense of abstraction, Fan Ho’s cosmopolitan, multicultural Hong Kong becomes a magical city of light and dark, shadow and substance, crowds and isolation. The experimental nature of Fan Ho’s vision is immediately apparent in these photographs, which are notable not only for their altered perspectives, dramatic compositions and surreal abstraction, but also for the view they provide of the markets, streets and slums of Hong Kong.

Vincent Yu is a Hong Kong photographer, born in 1964, who is interested in documenting disappearing heritage and architecture as well as communities affected by these changes. My favorite work of his is of Shek Kip Mei, the first public housing estate development in Hong Kong built in 1954. The resettlement project was an immediate response to the need for temporary relief as a result of the massive fire that destroyed the Shek Kip Mei squatter area on Christmas Eve 1953, when over 53,000 Chinese immigrants lost their makeshift homes overnight. The estate buildings, housing 2,500 people, were essentially concrete bunkers lacking the basics of doors, windows, electricity and running water. For two dollars a month, a family of five was able to cram into a cubicle of about 200 square feet.

More of Vincent Yu’s work can be found at vincentyu.net.