Abstract of the accomplished photographic work
The Second World War placed my city on the global stage, leaving behind traces of its past. Bombs buried beneath busy streets and war relics hidden in the landscape stand as silent witnesses to history. Following military records of Hong Kong’s wartime defenses, I traced my way from the coastline to inland borders, visiting bunkers that once housed machine gun emplacements. Each of these structures has one or more windows cut through thick walls—framing not only an external landscape but also the lingering tension between enemy lines.
Are these fortifications merely products of territorial conflict? Do they defend against what lies beyond the window, or against ideological invasion?
I sealed the windows and punctured small holes, allowing light to pierce through—like bullets once fired. In the end, the defender and the aggressor collapse into one.
Description of the project you intend to pursue through the Prize
Shoot Outside examines military bunkers as more than architectural relics—they embody the historical tensions of WWII, national borders, and ideological divides. By transforming these structures into pinhole cameras, the project merges external landscapes (within the bunkers’ firing range) with their interiors in a single image, collapsing the boundary between observer and target.
For the book, images will be printed as transparencies, viewed through backlighting to evoke their original function as observation posts. The book will also include maps, historical contexts, and geographic data of each site.
Currently focused on Hong Kong, the project will extend to the UK and Europe, tracing wartime fortifications in a global context. This prize would support the expansion, completing the project at a critical time—when revisiting war history is a cautionary reflection on the fragility of peace.