Photographer and Author: Edward Stokes
Translator: Jennifer Chan
Publisher: Hong Kong Conservation Photography Foundation with MTR Corporation, 1998
Format: Bilingual hardback, 255mm x 280mm, 168pp.
Photos: Colour
ISBN: 962-85274-1-X
Follow Edward Stokes on this personal journey, across the wilds of Hong Kong Island. His photographic odyssey begins in the west, with Pok Fu Lam’s sheer peaks and deep valleys. The book ends in the east, beside Cape D’Aguilar’s rugged coastline.
Photos of Hong Kong Island typically view it from across the harbour. The images in this book have a different viewpoint and purpose. Edward Stokes, by photographing the interior of Hong Kong Island, celebrates its natural grandeur. Peaks and valleys fill the foreground, the city buildings diminish into the background with their true proportions.
With artistic photos and historical narratives, Stokes guides readers across Hong Kong Island. Along the way, he presents a wealth of ecological and human interest – garnered from discussions and advice with ecologists, botanists, and marine scientists.
On Hong Kong Island crystal water flows into a gully. The watercourse runs past boulders, beside feathery bamboos, between tangled walls of trees. The city is just two kilometres away.
These natural wonders lie just beyond the intensely crowded urban areas. Superbly revealed in this book, this little-known Hong Kong is a place of natural creations, wild landscapes, solitary, beguiling trails. As the book’s chapters describe, local hiking is easily and accessible. Photographic and hiking notes add interest, with other information to encourage readers to explore Hong Kong Island themselves.
Edward Stokes signing copies at the book launch exhibition for Across Hong Kong Island, held in 1998 at Pacific Place.
