To accompany the release of artist SO Hing Keung’s latest photography book, South China Portraits, the Hong Kong photography bookstore space DEVEDO is hosting a self-titled exhibition featuring multiple portrait works captured in Southern China from the 1990s to the 2000s.

SO Hing Keung set foot in China in 1981. At the start of the reform and opening-up period, transportation was inconvenient; he traveled to the mainland numerous times—from Yunnan and Sichuan to Tibet, Xinjiang, and Harbin—leaving his footprints across the country as he captured what he saw.

He began by photographing landscapes and people’s daily lives, then gradually shifted toward portrait photography. So Hing Keung narrowed his focus to Guangdong Province, near Hong Kong—especially the Chaoshan region, known for strong traditional folkways and family values. Beginning in 1995, he embarked on a multi-year portrait photography project, replacing his initial 135 camera with a Hasselblad 120 to capture locals’ lifestyles more rigorously.

South China Portraits is not only an outstanding collection of portrait photography, but it also bears witness to the lives of grassroots citizens and the historical changes during the early days of China’s reform and opening-up. These images transcend personal emotion, carrying the face of an era and the life trajectories of those photographed.

Time: 2-7PM (Thursday–Saturday, by Appointment)
Venue address: 6J, Block 2 Kingley Industrial Building, 33 Yip Kan Street, Wong Chuk Hang