Following Hong Kong Is Beautiful, Isn’t It? And The Unspeakable, “After Island” is the third photography publication released by the Hong Kong-based independent photographer Chan Long Hei. The photographer consciously swirls from looking into social issues to untangling the visceral meanings from within, through unfolding and letting a journey over his memories and reminiscences flit and glide. Chan’s photobook includes black-and-white images captured in a particular island in recent years, which are the projections of his intuition and instinct of the moments. They not only delineate his heaving sentiments and trajectory of thoughts in a memorable period of time, but also represent the tactile linkages he has with each landscape and object encountered on the road. The after images created by lights that glow on his retinas, are as if the private album sealed in the witness of himself and the South shore of the island.

"I start from a holiday resort and stroll along a coastal drive. I enter a beach. Grains of sand linger around footfalls. I circle about and come back to where I start. Through a rustic lane, I follow a trail of footsteps to wilderness where I rejoin the cattle. Some are cooling themselves off in the mud pond; others are letting up under the tree. They moisten one another as if a way of comforting in the times of absurdity. Such a bulky body, such a tender move …such affection is common to all life."

 

Chan Long Hei (b. 1994) is an independent photographer born and raised in Hong Kong. After studying Social Policy at the university, Chan began working as a photojournalist with various local and international media outlets. He also received several local and international photography awards, including Pictures of the Year Asia Award, Taiwan Excellent Journalism Award, VivianWu Journalism Award and several annual awards from the Hong Kong Press Photographers Association. Chan began publishing his own work in 2017. He has published two photo books including Hong Kong is beautiful, isn't it? and The Unspeakable. He now devotes his time to documenting social phenomena and developing his personal photography projects.