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Hong Kong is a city where streets full of history and culture, blend seemlessly with striking modern architecture. It was after relocating to Hong Kong from the UK in 2014 that British visual artist and photographer Derry Ainsworth turned his passion for photography into his career, using the city as his canvas.
"Hong Kong has always inspired me to take photographs due to its unique beauty." Derry says "Each district tells its own story and I like capturing their varied characteristics on camera. My work follows an architectural theme that celebrates the design of a space with the way people interact with it."
"On top of the China Ferry Terminal you can find this spot that has an amazing architectural symmetry and a nice golden facade. You can use the sky in the background to silhouette a human figure for scale -- in this case, it's myself!"
West Kowloon, a neighbourhood which encompasses the West Kowloon Cultural District., Yau Ma Tei and Jordan, is the epitome of Hong Kong architecture, where award winning modern structures, hug the streets that are home to historic theatres and residential buildings. It is an area where modern art galleries and studios are next to generations old craft workshops.
To celebrate this up-and-coming neighbourhood, HKTB partnered with CP Collectives and Derry Ainsworth to create a photo series, capturing the beauty of West Kowloon through Derry's unique lens.
"I always refer to this colourful cityscape in Sham Shui Po as ‘Legoland’ - I love the varied colours across all of the different building blocks.”
"I like that this shot shows off the curved concrete architecture at the waterfront of West Kowloon. I've used it to help frame part of the skyline view during the midday sun."
"What I love about the Xiqu Centre’s interior is its mixture of sleek modern interior design with hints of red Chinese cultural elements. The lines leading lines on the ceiling help to bring attention to a central focal point, where you can see the artwork hanging. I really appreciate the attention to detail here.”
“Hidden away on top of West Kowloon MTR station you have this very scenic roof garden. I’ve used the curves of the roof architecture to curl around the distant view of the HK skyline.”
"‘The Arch is one of the best examples of Feng Shui architecture in Hong Kong. Unique to Hong Kong, these holes are designed to supposedly allow dragons to fly from the mountains to the waters, allowing positive energy to flow through as a result.”
“Hong Kong is home to amazing cityscapes. I love the way the district of Sham Shui Po looks from above. This unique dense grid of concrete can really be appreciated from this perspective."
"A scenic spot to take in the amazing views of the Hong Kong skyline."
About Derry Ainsworth
Derry Ainsworth is a Hong Kong based creative director, digital artist, photographer and architecture graduate from Bournemouth in the UK. He has now been a photographer based in Hong Kong for over 6 years and has been fortunate enough to work on a huge variety of projects with some of the biggest brands from all across the world.
Derry's imagery of Hong Kong has been featured in many magazines and publications such as Timeout, Bloomberg, Vogue, SCMP, CNN, Forbes and more.
Apart from his commercial work, Derry has always focussed on his passion for capturing Hong Kong. Derry has now held over 10 exhibitions of his creative work, including the first ever drone exhibition in Hong Kong - and has now become a well established artist.
Today, Derry has combined all of these skills in his current role as creative director of Digital Art Fair Asia - where he oversees and curates the pioneer digital NFT event. Derry also participates as an NFT artist and uses his creative skills to create captivating digital art.
The West Kowloon collection of images is done in collaboration with CP Collectives