BY SHEUNG YIU
© Emmanuel Serna from the series ‘No Life’
Here and then in Urbanautica Hong Kong, we receive submissions from photographers around the world who produce bodies of work about Hong Kong. This series is our attempt to showcase these works, creating a more diverse perspective on the way.
For our first instalment, we have Emmanuel Serna. The french photographer has been a freelance photographer in Hong Kong since 2010. During his years living in rural Hong Kong, he had come to find out that what he thought were his neighbours, were in fact refugees who live a rather different lives than he does. His series entitled ‘No Life’ is a photojournalistic documentary that reveals a often unknown and grim side of this Asian financial hub and metropolis, mostly unknown by outsiders or even local citizens.
In his artist statement, he said:
«According to official figures, there are about 10,000 asylum seekers in the territory of Hong Kong, mostly coming from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Nepal ; there are also a small number of them from Somalia, Eritrea and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Most of them have fled persecution in their country, hoping to find refuge in Hong Kong.
Upon their arrival to Hong Kong, the refugees stay in the detention centre while their passports are confiscated, they are registered as asylum seeker or as a victim of torture. On average it takes 3 years to process their applications, but some are still waiting after eight years.
In a city where rents are among the highest in the world, refugees have access only to tiny rooms mostly without windows in unsanitary slums. Initially these slums weren’t intended for habitation, these are old pig and chicken farms, containers or sheet metal and wooden huts built and refurbished by unscrupulous owners who saw here a way to win easy money. These slums are dangerous and often there is the fire because of faulty electrical systems.
This extreme poverty forces the refugees to work illegally, working is is prohibited to them and they risk a sentence of up to three years in prison.
Some of them do recycling or sell food, but they spend most of their time in their rooms sleeping or between fellow sufferers to discuss and dream of a better future.
Before starting this documentary, I never imagined that I would be faced with a world so dark, dark in every senses. Dark like these young people full of desire in search of a better future in Hong Kong and who realize that there is no future for them in this city. Dark like these slums where the Hong Kong government let them living by ignoring their situation.»
© Emmanuel Serna from the series ‘No Life’
Whether you are a Hong Kong photographer, a photographer currently based in Hong Kong or have created work on Hong Kong, if you have a strong body of work, please send us a series of images (jpg,1200px on the longest side), your artist statement and a short bio to kenneth@urbanautica.com