Wikipedia

Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze

Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze (born 1987) is a French photographer[1] known for his work capturing modern urban life in the city of Hong Kong. His photographic work started in 2012 with Vertical Horizon, a photo book focused on the city's vertical architecture, which gave him international visibility.[2]

Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze

Notable work

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Vertical Horizon

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Vertical Horizon is a collection of photographs capturing the densely-populated city of Hong Kong from the ground, in the midst of building. It was published as a book of the same name in 2012 and exhibited for the first time in 2013 in Hong Kong.[3] The cover of the book depicts the Monster Building, a residential complex in Quarry Bay which was later used as a set in the movie Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014) and has become a hotspot for photographer on social networks since then.[1]

The Blue Moment

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The Blue Moment is a series of photographs taken during the blue hour. During this short period of time when the sun sits right below the horizon, the sunlight's blue wavelengths dominate and tint all the colourless surfaces like white walls or black rooftops into shades of blue. In their compositions, many of Jacquet-Lagrèze's photographs are depicting the contrast between Hong Kong's dense cityscape and the serenity of nature represented by waterscape and lush greenery of the wild mountains surrounding the city.[4][5] The series was published as a photo book and exhibited for the first time in Hong Kong in 2016.[6]

Concrete Stories

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Concrete Stories is a diptych of photo books published in 2018 and 2022.[7] It consists in photographs capturing various moments on Hong Kong’s rooftops. It is aimed at recording a seldom-seen side of people’s lifestyle in the older districts of the city, especially in Kowloon which has the biggest density of old buildings.[8] It documents how people make use of the space available on the shared rooftops of their buildings in order to cope with the restrained surface of their home.[7] For this project, Jacquet-Lagreze cropped most of the photos vertically in order to give a feeling of narrowness to the viewer, inspired by the work of Fan Ho who was famous for cropping his photos.[9]

City Poetry

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City Poetry is a project focused on old signage found in the oldest neighbourhoods of Hong Kong. The project consist of collage of characters selected for their meaning and complementary colours.[2] By shooting only individual character Jacquet-Lagrèze strips off the original meaning of the sign it has been shot on in order to give a new meaning when put next to other characters.[10] City Poetry was first exhibited at Blue Lotus Gallery in Hong Kong in 2019.[2] In 2022, it was exhibited as a part of a group show organised by the HKTDC in Time Square (Hong Kong).[11] One artwork was selected as a part of the group show 'By the People - 字由人' at the Hong Kong Museum of Art from 2022 to 2023.[12]

Selected exhibitions

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Solo

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  • Vertical Horizon, Hotel Panorama, Hong Kong, 2013.[3]
  • The Blue Moment, Blue Lotus Gallery, Hong Kong, 2016.[13]
  • City Poetry, Blue Lotus Gallery, Hong Kong, 2019.[2]
  • Thirty-six Views of Lion Rock, Blue Lotus Gallery, Hong Kong, 2022.[14]

Group

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Books

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  • Vertical Horizon. Hong Kong: Asia One Books, 2012. ISBN 978-9881531681.[17]
  • Wild Concrete, Hong Kong: Asia One Books, 2014. ISBN 978-9881317926.[18]
  • The Blue Moment, Hong Kong: Asia One Books, 2016. ISBN 978-9881392268.[13]
  • Concrete Stories, Hong Kong: Asia One Books, 2018. ISBN 978-9887712190.[15]
  • Concrete Stories II, Hong Kong: Asia One Books, 2022. ISBN 978-9887917755.
  • 獅子山三十六景 Thirty-Six Views of Hong Kong, Hong Kong: Blue Lotus Edition, 2022. ISBN 978-9887619208.[14]

References

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  1. ^ a b Lin, Veronica (2019-07-15). "Romain Jacquet-Lagreze, the man who made the 'Transformers' monster building Instagram famous, on making poetry from Hong Kong's iconic street signs". Scmp.com. Retrieved 2024-05-31.
  2. ^ a b c d Cerini, Marianna (2019-06-19). "The photographer turning Hong Kong's street signs into poems". Cnn.com. Retrieved 2024-05-31.
  3. ^ a b "Hong Kong's vertical horizons". telegraph.co.uk. 2013-05-10. Retrieved 2024-05-31.
  4. ^ "French photographer captures 'The Blue Moment' in HK". chinadaily.com.cn. 2024-12-02. Retrieved 2024-06-20.
  5. ^ W.G., Beecher (2018-02-01). "Hong Kong in blue: the cityscapes of Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze". donttakepictures.com. Retrieved 2024-06-20.
  6. ^ Poon, Linda (2016-05-18). "Capturing Hong Kong in the 'Blue Moment'". bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2024-06-20.
  7. ^ a b Mallonee, Laura. "A Rare Bird's-Eye View of Hong Kong's Vanishing Rooftop Culture". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2024-11-20.
  8. ^ Laura, Isabella (2018-10-12). "Romain Jacquet-Lagreze's Concrete Stories captures rooftop scenes, but not the kind you'd imagine". www.itsnicethat.com. Retrieved 2024-11-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ^ Kazimir, Kiefer. "The Vertical Beauty of Hong Kong". onthearts.com. Retrieved 2024-11-20.
  10. ^ Dewolf, Christopher (2019-05-19). "Reading the city's poetry —城市詩意— A new series by photographer Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze". zolimacitymag.com. Retrieved 2024-06-20.
  11. ^ a b "HKTDC". designinspire.hktdc.com. Retrieved 2024-11-20.
  12. ^ a b "By the People: Creative Chinese Characters" (PDF). Hong Kong Museum of Art. 2022-09-09. Retrieved 2024-05-31.
  13. ^ a b Mallonee, Laura (2016-05-10). "Forget Golden Hour. Hong Kong's Blue Hour Is Where the Magic's At". Wired.com. Retrieved 2024-05-31.
  14. ^ a b Knott, Kylie (2022-08-28). "Homage to Hokusai in Lion Rock photo series by French photographer that shows the Hong Kong mountain from different aspects". Scmp.com. Retrieved 2024-05-31.
  15. ^ a b "Tall stories: the weird world of Hong Kong's rooftops – in pictures". theguardian.com. 2018-05-24. Retrieved 2024-05-31.
  16. ^ "Blue Lotus Gallery: One City, Two Tales". loeildelaphotographie.com. 2024-08-14. Retrieved 2024-11-14.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  17. ^ Zeveloff, Julie (2013-05-06). "These Dramatic Pictures Of Hong Kong Will Give You Vertigo". Businessinsider.com. Retrieved 2024-05-31.
  18. ^ Peters, Adele (2014-11-25). "In These Post-Apocalyptic-Looking Hong Kong Neighborhoods, Trees Sprout From Rooftops". Fastcompany.com. Retrieved 2024-05-31.
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