Happiness in Black

Wai Kwong Chan
Happiness in Black

Photographs: Wai Kwong Chan

Publisher: Zen Foto Gallery

132 pages

Year: 2020

ISBN: 978-4-905453-95-6

Comments: Hardcover, 200 × 200 mm. Colors photographs. Limited Edition500.

Hong Kong-based photographer Chan Wai-Kwong’s photobook “Happiness in Black” (the title inspired by a government-critical song by music group Softhard) features street photography taken in Hong Kong between 2018 and 2020. Piece by piece, the full-page, full-color photos in the book add a new side to the Hong Kong as it is seen by Chan Wai-Kwong, forming a rich portrait of the city during one of its most tumultuous years. Through street portraits, detail shots and a few shocking images, Chan Wai-Kwong shows the filth, the glamour, and the rot behind the surface.

Chan Wai-Kwong taught himself photography as a teenager after dropping out of school. He has self-published more than 40 photobooks so far. “Happiness in Black” is his third publication with Tokyo-based publisher Zen Foto Gallery.