Blog #175 Parkour in Hong Kong [HKFP]
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Back in September of 2019, I had the opportunity to work with Hong Kong Kong Free Press, Hong Kong’s Free Independent news and information agency. They are on the front lines of the protests, coronavirus situation, politics, art, sports, you name it.
The (recent) protests started in June of 2019. Our fair city was completely upside down by September of last year. A story was brewing under the surface that became the work of reporter Jennifer Creery. She needed images and video for a project to capture these local young men who were practicing parkour. If you’ve ever seen those videos of guys and gals leaping and flipping from roof top to roof top or up and down walls with incredible speed, strength, and dexterity, then you are familiar with parkour. The movie Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) featured an amazing scene incorporating parkour.
So these dudes from the a Hong Kong parkour group were (allegedly) teaching protesters to evade the raptors (riot police). So when HKFP called, I was in. We went to Kowloon Park on one beautiful September morning. We shot hundreds of images, stills, fast action, portraits, and video.
A week or two later, the piece was published along with a few of my images. I felt really good to have contributed to a serious piece of journalism on a serious topic within my community. The work has it’s challenges but if you put yourself “all in” and work hard to get good images and work politely with the people involved in any given project, you would be surprised what you can accomplish.
Hopefully there will be more of these yet to come.
To read the article and see the images. Click here.
The light is always right.
JHG
*Images: © Limelight Limited
Where: Kowloon Park, Kowloon
Subject: Portraits of Hongkongers doing parkour
Gear: Fujfilm X-T3, Fujinon 16-55mm f/2.8, & Fujfilm EF-X500 Flash
National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year 2017 Editor’s Favorite: Galleries: Week 4 Cities & People