travel with film

Location

Hong Kong
[ ] Hong Kong Island

Travel Dates

2020.01.27 - 2020.02.06

Camera

Ricoh GR1v

Film Stocks

KODAK ULTRAMAX 400, KODAK COLORMAX 400, KODAK COLORPLUS 200

Travel Notes

This would be my 5th and most memorable Chinese New Year in Hong Kong.

Hoping to switch up the monotonous city celebrations of the Lunar New Year I asked my dad if he knew anyone in a small village that could invite us in for the holidays. Fast forward 2 days and we find ourselves in a very small village in the outskirts of the city, by invitation of a friend of a friend. This was how I had expected locals to celebrate the holidays, but as my parents live in the city center it's extremely rare to see such celebrations.

We were well taken care of with invitations to drink the local drink and to eat the local eat by "the Captain". He was a busy host, running around making sure everyone in the neighborhood was happy. Over Chinese New Year the uniform is usually coordinated red or gold and this year, he owned the gold. We followed the lion for a couple of hours and spoke with the friendly locals, and then headed back to the city.

My ears rang for two days from all the firecrackers.

We called this guy "captain" as he seemed to be running the show. Ricoh GR1v on KODAK ULTRAMAX 400

The lion would go to each apartment door and do a dance, then get fed a head of lettuce only to spit it out (representing wealth, prosperity and good luck), then someone would blow a block of firecrackers. This was repeated for each household of the village. I believe it took 3 days to go around the whole village.

Family friend at the cemetery.

Late night deals at the flower market.

"Lettuce" and "get a lot of money" sound similar in Chinese, so lettuce is a staple for holiday superstitious activities. During the Lunar New Year you will often see it hanging in odd places. Here, in our home kitchen window.

Police presence was still noticeable over the holidays.

One of my favorite Hong Kong shots over the years.

Ricoh GR1v on KODAK ULTRAMAX 400.

Notice the color differences between the previous batch of photos and these, taken with KODAK COLORPLUS 200. Very minimal post production was done from scanner.