In May 2021, Wong Chung-Wai left Hong Kong with his family to start a new life in the UK. In the months leading up to their departure, he wandered the city alone with his camera, trying to hold onto what he knew would soon be out of reach. The resulting series, Hong Kong After Hong Kong, is a quiet visual farewell to the city he was leaving behind.

The photographs reflect Hong Kong’s contrasts: dense urban structures alongside pockets of nature, ancient traces beside modern architecture, and shifting light filtered through sea and sky. Despite being one of the most crowded cities in the world, the images are strikingly empty, often showing solitary figures within cinematic, almost suspended scenes. Moving on foot, Chung-Wai captures overlooked details, turning his final walks through the city into a personal record of memory and loss.

His family history echoes within this journey. Decades earlier, his parents fled mainland China, crossing Shenzhen Bay in a dangerous escape to reach Hong Kong. Though his own departure was far less perilous, that history of displacement still resonates through his experience.

Against the backdrop of Hong Kong’s changing political situation after 1997 and the unrest of 2019, civil freedoms have gradually eroded, leading to censorship, arrests and growing uncertainty. The introduction of the UK’s BN(O) visa scheme in 2021 led to a large wave of migration, with hundreds of thousands expected to leave the city in the coming years.