Few metropolis interpret the remarkable 20th century tendency of skyscraper - filled , lewdly dense urban center better than Hong Kong . At its height , The Kowloon Walled City , which was demolished in 1993 , was perhaps the most dystopian portrait of urban sustenance . And according to lensman Andy Yeung , 21st - hundred Hong Kong is n’t all that dissimilar .
Yeung recently published his latest project , “ Walled City , ” to press out this idea . Shotwith a DJI Phantom 4 , the photos are equal parts uncanny and familiar . Anyone who ’s ever switch to planet way when exploring a big city in Google Maps will immediately recognize the grid - same layout and unique glimpse down dark alleyways in these aerial pic of Hong Kong . But there ’s something foreign pass on , too .
The tightly pack towers have some courtyards that seem to hand towards the essence of the Earth , endless pits of shadow . Some of the apartment look like they might not see the sunlight at all . Then there are the interminable amenity : tennis courts , gilded lap pools , cautiously manicure parks . There ’s also possibly a expectant racing yacht in the middle of some other building in one photo ? ( Update : the yachtis really a shopping mall . ) It ’s is all so weird and beguiling .
“ If you look firmly enough , you will notice that the [ Kowloon Walled City ] is not dead , ” Yeung say in an artist ’ statement . “ Part of it still exists in many of current gamy concentration housing flat where the only position out the windowpane is neighbour ’s window . I hope this series can get multitude to think about claustrophobic sustenance in Hong Kong from a fresh perspective . ”
As a gunpoint of comparability , here ’s an aerial photograph of the Kowloon Walled City in 1989 , just four years before it was demolish and turned into a park . This was shoot by Ian Lambot , author of City of Darkness .
It was the aspiration for endless science fabrication stories , but the Kowloon Walled City was a real place . consort to Yeung , it still is .
[ Andy Yeung ]
CitiesDronesurbanism
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