Our dear MCCM Creations, from Hong Kong, which we all had the chance to "meet" with Peter Suart and "The Black Book of Falling" (see March posts), is lauching a new photographic book, Our Home, Shek Kip Mei 1954-2006 By Vincent Yu, and exhibiting the photos that compose the book, in the place where they were shot, in Shek Kip Mei Estate. It is sure worth to visit! Click on the photo for enlarged details.
Shek Kip Mei was the first public housing estate development in Hong Kong built by the British colonial government 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. However, it was also hailed as a new era for Government public housing programmes and the need to accommodate the rapidly growing population of the 1960s and 70s.
Intended to be a temporary resettlement, 50 years later the apartments in the Shek Kip Mei Estate are still rented out by the Government. Photojournalist Vincent Yu captured life on Shek Kip Mei Estate through his lens during its last phase of existence, before the oldest blocks were demolished in November 2006. His images document some 200 elderly residents and their ‘homes’ before they were resettled to modern high-rises, many having inhabited the crumbling estate for over five decades.
Born and raised in Hong Kong, Vincent Yu has worked as a photojournalist covering major news events across the Asia-Pacific region since 1985. As a close observer of Hong Kong’s rapid development, Yu has acquired a special sensitivity towards its ever-changing cityscape. In particular, he is interested in documenting disappearing heritage and architecture as well as communities affected by these changes.
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