I started this photo series while discovering the phantastic realm of Hong Kong’s back alleys in 2016. Traditionally erected in continuous rows on narrow plots, each Tong Lau (唐樓) or Chinese tenement building in Hong Kong was required by Building Ordinance to have a second entrance facing the so-called “scavenger lanes” at the rear. Stained by age and weathered by the forces of nature, their surfaces had grown complex and rich in textures, with multiple layers of paint, rust, and patina added over time. These humble back doors, often abandoned and disused, had become their own accidental pieces of art. They reminded me of the Japanese wabi-sabi (侘寂) principle, an aesthetic that is sometimes described as one of appreciating beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete" in nature (Leonard Koren, 1994).
The photos from the island communities of Cheung Chau and Tai O all display front doors of either simple sheds or historical Chinese shophouses. Unlike these, the elaborate steel gates guarding the stairs of the local village houses in Cheung Chau do have a strikingly modernist aesthetic.
Walter is a German urban planner and author enjoying the quiet life on Cheung Chau since 2018. He has travelled Asia since the 1980s and in 2006 decided to relocate to this fascinating part of the world for good, first living and working in Cambodia and Vietnam. Since moving to Hong Kong in 2014 Walter has extensively walked the city and documented its unique built environment and ‘sense of place’ with his digital camera. His focus is on the older parts of the city: the weathered details and informal charm of the back alleys as well as the local modernist aesthetics of the post-war neighbourhoods. Being a strong advocate of cultural heritage conservation, he published the photo book Battambang Heritage (©2018, Apsara Books, Hong Kong) and the Architectural Guide Phnom Penh (©2020, DOM Publishers, Berlin).
@wkoditek | @hongkongmodernistfacades
Contact here if you are interested in purchasing work by the artist and we will help connect you.
