Beyond Windows and Mirrors: Picturing Movements of Social Changes

Overview

An online slideshow and roundtable discussion.

Since June last year, many photojournalists have been capturing the ‘Be water’ movement in Hong Kong through their lens.

Some people say photography is a ‘mirror’ that reflects one’s feelings and views; others say photography is a ‘window’ through which we see the real world. In this light, photography is a dual existence that is at odds with itself. If we look at it in the context of this social movement, does photography create experiences that fulfil or transcend this framework? Beyond windows and mirrors, can photography reflect the world as ripples do?

The viewing of images is a part of our everyday life. Over the past year of upheavals and furore, a plethora of images has permeated our lives and minds, proliferating and diverging between extremes. How many of them are ‘records’ of objective evidence? Which images are stimuli to the ‘construction’ of ideologies? How should we read, examine and critique images? How should we explore the structural relationships between photography and society, between politics and aesthetics? What is the fundamental value of photography?

Continuing the dialogues from the PROVOKE & BEYOND exhibition and the Workshop on Protest Photography of the HKIPF 2018, we seek to respond to what has transpired since June of 2019, and to revisit the relationship between photography and social movements. Before the roundtable discussion, there will be a slide projection of works by more than 10 image-makers from different fields and positions. It casts a retrospective look at the most turbulent year in Hong Kong since the handover, and spotlights it as the starting point of the discussion.