-- Artist statement (excerpt from the book Good Luck Hong Kong afterword)
I was born and raised in Hong Kong and left in 1997 when the territory was about to be handed back over to China. I was 19 years old.
Interestingly, my parents smuggled themselves into Hong Kong from mainland China during the Cultural Revolution. I guess each of us basically left our homelands due to politics. In my case of course, the departure was legal. Still, even though political events triggered our decisions, both my mother and I also left our countries for personal reasons. To put it briefly, neither of us could stand our respective environment at the time (…).
The past twenty years of my life have been in an intense photographic loop. Life still goes on. I continue to take photographs. I guess my curiosity in photography echoes my curiosity when I arrived in Japan after leaving Hong Kong.
Through photographs, new interests arise. For me that curiosity has only strengthened – it has become my living adrenaline now. This adrenaline is born form the pleasure in taking photographs. Walking ahead, step by step, looking and shooting without hesitation – it’s that moment that does it. I can’t get enough of the thrill.
The political and social situation of Hong Kong has changed since those days. But the people there still drift along with their own unique characteristics. As long as humans are what they are, the essence what we do won’t change. Come to think of it, my unchanging essence – an unwavering curiosity and relentless desire to photograph - maybe that too was born in Hong Kong.
Born in Hong Kong, 1976, Eric came to Japan in 1997 and learned his photography skills while working at Nishimura Camera, a camera store and photo lab in West Tokyo. In 2001, Eric graduated from Tokyo Visual Arts College and was awarded the Konnica Photo Premio Grand Prize for his series “Chikuseki To Mirai [Accumulation and Future]”. He has also received many other awards including the 19th Hitotsubo Photography Grand Prix for “Ichinichi To Eien [One Day and Eternity]” in 2002, the 2nd Visual Arts Photo Award - Grand Prize for “every where” in 2004 and in 2009, the 9th Sagamihara Emerging Photographer Incentive Award for “Good Luck China”. His main publications are “Good Luck China” (AKAAKA, 2008), “Look at this people” (AKAAKA, 2011) and “Eye of the Vortex” (AKAAKA, 2014).
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