IMAGE RESEARCH

Housing shortage in Hong Kong 缺

-      Cramped housings (lack of public space)

-      Cage homes 

-      Land shortage

-      Overpopulation

-       Limitations to freedom

-       Lack of personal space 

The city with the world’s tiniest and costliest living spaces may soon convert drainpipes into homes. The aim is to get young people on the property ladder – but how small is too small?

The angle that the image was shot is perpendicular to the buildings. The whole image is being cramped with buildings and windows. This way of shooting exaggerates the packed phenomenon of tall buildings in Hong Kong. Thinking of another way of shooting the photo, the image could be shot in a farer perspective. In that way, it would have looked more spacious and less suffocating.  

I feel like the buildings are fully packed that they could become a small scaled grid system.

The big contrast between the cramped buildings and the sky has caught my attention. The way how the sky is being blocked by the buildings gives me a feeling of being suffocated. The way how the image was photographed and edited has further develop the uncomfortable feeling that it gives. 

The photo is shot with an angle that is looking up from the ground, in between those packed buildings. This angle of shooting builds up the suffocating feeling when looking at the photo. I feel sympathetic of how the sky is being cropped by the tall buildings as I don’t think this is how a prosperous city should look like, with the sky being blocked more than half by concrete. 

The contrast and brightness are being edited and modified. We can see that the cramped buildings look much more duller and dimmer than the sky and that the brightness of the sky is being pulled lighter. 

I think that the airplane symbolizes freedom and dreams. In my interpretation, with the airplane in the limited space of the sky, it feels like people’s dreams and freedom are being limited by the society.

“I’ve just learnt to work around the lack of space by keeping things tidy and only holding on to the stuff I really need. My bed is the largest piece of furniture here and so that’s where I tend to hang out. There isn’t room for much else.”

Li accepts that living small is just the way it is in Hong Kong and has grown used to it.

It is scary and pitiful that people are trying to make it like a normal phenomenon and getting used to the existence of the cramped living spaces. They even invented the pipe homes where they turned large drainpipes into living spaces just to have the younger generations to be able to get on the property ladder. The way how a serious and pathetic issue has now turned into something that should be adapted by people is scary. 

After doing all of the research, I realised that the main reason behind the housing shortage problem is not about the lacking amount of land. Hong Kong actually has 75% of land that is untouched and non-developed. The main reason behind is ownership of land by rich businessmen. They hooked up with the government and earn money and revenue when holding the land.

The fact that the main reason behind the serious housing problem in Hong Kong is not about the lack of land has shook me. Are the images of the cramped and packed buildings above one of the ways to persuade people that the housing shortage problem is a result of the imbalance between the amount of land and people? Are the media making use of images to intrude false information and ideas to readers?