Varsity's Choice

Click the shutter

by Li Ching-luen

From snapshots with a cellphone to digital photography, taking pictures is now much simpler and more convenient. "But there is no art in it," said David Chan Bing-hung, a photographer and camera collector.

Chan said the younger generation did not have much knowledge about cameras and their history, and he wanted to help promote the photography culture by loaning one-third of his collection of 140 cameras to the Hong Kong Heritage Museum for its exhibition "Cameras Inside-out".

Back in the 1940s to 1960s, taking photos was a luxurious pursuit. Cameras and films were expensive. People often carried rolls of films around when they took pictures and needed to have knowledge about the techniques and skills of photography, much different from the present freestyle snapshot taking with a digital camera that can delete the images anytime, Chan said.

The texture and colour of digital photos are not as fine as that of films, he continued. And many of those images have "no content, no life, no emotions", he said. Yet, the photographer said the era of film cameras had passed. As society progresses in a fast pace, new products come in, he said.

The exhibition, which will run until September 3, displays cameras made in different countries with more than 100 years' history and photographic works, mainly in black and white, of 30 Hong Kong photographers in the 1950s. The history of classic cameras such as Leica, Kodak, Polaroid and Nikon is also presented.

Five contemporary local artists' works, which combine with installation and mixed media art, are the other part of the exhibition.

The Heritage Museum is located at 1 Man Lam Road, Sha Tin.

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