Above Below
The archive trawling continues and today I dredged up this fine capture from the streets of Hong Kong. It is perhaps the only place I desire to reside in more than my beloved New. York. City.
So the photo could be said to be upside down. Indeed the ground is not in its usual place, but I think the photo is right side up, as this is the orientation that works best for it. It creates this great tension when you try to look at the ground. Try it. Tell me if your eyes aren’t pulled from it, down down down into the bottom of the frame. Not only do the people seem like they should be falling, but the eye latches onto these lines in the buildings that demand to be followed to the depths of the sky below.
I find it strange how peaceful the reflected sidewalk seems. There’s almost a delicate sparseness to it, these little figures just going on their merry way while the rest of the frame is this overturned visual chaos. OK that might be a bit far, but the only calm that I can see here is in the spit of sidewalk at bottom center where there is emptiness above the patterns in the stone.
Ahhhh, Hong Kong.
Gustav Hoiland 
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