The photo is extracted from a photo exhibition, which called Sojourning as tempura – Inadequate Housing Photo Exhibition, organized by the Society of Community Organization from 7 to 14 March 2012.
This artwork is concerning about the social phenomenon nowadays in Hong Kong, which is inadequate housing. It indicates the private temporary housing and cubicle, cockloft of private permanent housing. In recent years, there are a huge number of partitioned rooms being built in industrial building. The number of people living at inadequate housing was around 100000 in 2010 and this government figure is underestimated. Also, accompanied by the increasing number of inadequate housing, there is a rising trend of tragedy of people who lived in these illegal building. The fact has shown us a worsening social condition of where we live.
According to Susan Sontag, photography does not only represent an object but it is also a part of the object and can be seen as the direct extension. Anything that being photographed gives us a sense of being real and of existing. In this sense, photography is a means for capturing reality, that is the reason why I chosen a still image for doing this assignment because it can reflect reality.
The artwork shown in the Exhibition was featured on photography of the underprivileged communities living in urban slums, tried to tell their stories through photography.
The photo showed roof-top cubicles in Kwun Tong industrial buildings. A family was sitting on the chair, the surroundings was just like the setting of an ordinary family, several chairs and sofa, a dining table in the middle. The only difference is, it is not at indoor but at the unsheltered area. It shows how inadequate the living area is, a problem that has long been a concern in Hong Kong.
The photo has aroused the public to pay attention on the issue of extreme disparity between the rich and the poor. The rich in Hong Kong own several houses is a common phenomenon. However, the poor even do not have a home, or living in extreme condition. The rich bought big house sometimes is not for inhabitancy but for the auction in the house market. That is quite extravagant for the underprivileged. According to the United Nations, the Gini coefficient of Hong Kong was 0.53 in 2010. It is surly a alert for the government to take measures to lessen the seriousness of the problem.
It also showed that the government housing policy is not effective enough to improve the poor situation, insufficiency of housing even worsening in the recent years, number of registered applicants on the waiting list of public rental housing was around 170000 in 2011, which consisted of over 320000 people. The number is increasing due to decrease of allocated units every year, decrease of newly built flats every year and increasing number of working poor and needy. The picture has revealed what the above figures tried to tell us graphically. It showed the helpless of the underprivileged in this highly- competitiveness society.
The background behind them seems the symbol of Hong Kong – very high living density. The ridge line is obviously blocked by the high-rise residential buildings, together with the gloomy colour tone used in this photo, I think the idea expressed by the photographer would be the serious visual pollution in Hong Kong caused by the extensive construction, the gloomy sky revealed the much deteriorating air quality.
