13 september 2024, Yves Joris
Between past and present: Sarah Greene brings Hong Kong to Europe
With the saying ‘The early bird catches the worm’ in mind, I entered the coordinates for the Blue Lotus Gallery pop-up in Ghent into Waze. An hour later, I was warmly and spontaneously greeted by gallery owner Sarah Greene, who clearly didn’t suffer from morning grumpiness. We started with a cup of coffee and lively exchange of stories about both Ghent and Hong Kong.
Let’s start with an obvious question: how did your journey into the art world begin?
My path into the art world was anything but conventional. I originally came to Hong Kong for a job as a shipbroker. But I always had a strong urge to do something more cultural and creative. I was probably influenced by my father, who was an antiques dealer. His love of stories inspired me and I became fascinated by objects that carry a history or story with them. Art has been part of my life since childhood, but it took some time before I realised this would also be my professional path.
My leap into the art world began when I impulsively bought an industrial space in Fo Tan. Instead of antiques, I decided to exhibit work by local artists, as there was little attention devoted to them in Hong Kong at the time. Fo Tan turned out to be the perfect place, with its many artist studios and a nearby community of art lovers. That’s how it all started.
What was your original intention when you opened Blue Lotus Gallery?
Blue Lotus began as my mission to capture the cultural identity of Hong Kong through photography. The city is full of stories, heritage and a constantly changing urban landscape and I saw photography as the perfect medium to capture that reality. When I began, the art scene in Hong Kong was still developing and there were few places exploring the city’s complex identity through photography.
I’ve always been drawn to work with a strong narrative. For me, every artwork tells a story and photography has the power to bring us directly to a specific moment, capturing a slice of history and preserving it for future generations. My love of photography grew due to circumstances. I met Peter Lau of Asia One (a publisher of photography books), who wanted me to get involved in his new gallery space. Our first major exhibition featured the iconic photographer Fan Ho. That show was a huge success and made me realise that photography had a strong appeal to both the public and media. We were featured in all local and international magazines and newspapers and we had around 3,000 visitors to the exhibition, which was beyond our expectations. That motivated me to continue in that direction.
Fan Ho’s work, especially his black-and-white images of 1950s and 1960s Hong Kong, is filled with nostalgia and poetry. Besides Fan Ho, I also work with artists like Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze, who captures the modern urban landscapes of Hong Kong. This diversity in styles reflects the changing identity of the city.
Fan Ho, On The Stage of Life, 2024, Blue Lotus Gallery
Can you tell us more about these artists? Are they well known in Europe?
Perhaps more than you might think! The exhibition I’ve organised in Ghent is a small pop-up, but people are coming from far and wide to see Fan Ho’s work. This is the first time his work has been exhibited in Belgium. Visitors are coming from Antwerp, Brussels, Paris, Luxembourg – even Hasselt and Kortrijk! (laughs). They are mostly people who already know his work but have only seen it online. Even his books are hard to come by in Europe.
Fan Ho was primarily active in the '50s and '60s, a completely different time. Nowadays, there’s a thriving photography market, but that wasn’t the case back then, especially not in Hong Kong. Photographers gained recognition by participating in photo club competitions. Fan Ho won more than 300 awards in such competitions and became a Fellow of the American Photographic Society and Royal British Society. He was also a Fellow of the Photographic Society in Kortrijk!
Fan Ho was very versatile. He didn’t limit himself to one style or direction. He also wrote essays on photography, distinguishing between objective and subjective photography. Objective photography captures facts, like in press photography, while subjective photography is more about capturing a mood or feeling. Fan Ho focused on the emotional, not on capturing the truth.
What I find particularly interesting about his work is how he experimented with cropping and compositions. His photos are minimalist; he cut away everything that was not relevant to the essence of the image. In the '50s and '60s, photographers usually worked with rectangular formats, but Fan Ho broke from that tradition and began experimenting with other shapes.
In Hong Kong, Fan Ho is an icon. He captured the city with so much love that people there deeply appreciate him. When I organise an exhibition, it even makes national news. The last time I held an exhibition, there was such a long line of people wanting to get in that I had to hire security to manage the crowd. People stood in line for hours to see his work.
I brought Fan Ho’s work back to Hong Kong after it had been stored in boxes for years. At one point, he had stopped taking pictures because he had become a film director. His family, who had emigrated to the United States, later encouraged him to exhibit his photos again. And that’s how it started again.
Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze, Dusk Kiss, Hong Kong 2020, 2022, Blue Lotus Gallery
And what about Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze?
I’ve been working with Romain for over ten years. He began with his series Vertical Horizon, in which he photographed Hong Kong’s towering buildings from a unique perspective: straight up. These images went viral, especially when Instagram started becoming popular in 2012. His work appeared everywhere, from Stern to The Guardian. Since then, we’ve continued to collaborate and every few years, he releases a new series, often in book form.
One of his most recent books, Concrete Stories, captures life in Hong Kong’s densely populated urban environment. Unlike Michael Wolf, who often photographed imposing buildings without a human presence, Romain focuses on the people living in these massive structures. This makes his work so relatable and human. Romain also created Wild Concrete, in which he shows how nature is slowly reclaiming space in the city. This symbolises how nature always finds its way, despite all the concrete.
Fan Ho Approaching Shadow, 1954, 2024, Blue Lotus Gallery
You’re going to Unseen in Amsterdam soon. What can we expect?
Yes, this is the first time Blue Lotus Gallery is participating in Unseen and I’m incredibly excited! We’re presenting—as you might have guessed—the work of two of our most important artists: Fan Ho and Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze, under the theme ‘One City, Two Tales’. The idea is to create an artistic dialogue between the past and present of Hong Kong, as captured by these two exceptional photographers.
The title of the exhibition, One City, Two Tales, reminds me of Dickens’ work A Tale of Two Cities. Was this deliberate?
What an interesting comparison! Although it wasn’t a deliberate reference to Dickens, I find the parallel between the titles fascinating. A Tale of Two Cities takes place in two cities—London and Paris—and explores the contrasts and conflicts of that time, such as the revolution and the struggle between old and new systems. With One City, Two Tales, it’s about Hong Kong as one city, but a city that is constantly changing. We look through the eyes of two different artists, each with their own unique perspective on their time. It’s not a conflict as in Dickens’ work, but rather a dialogue between the past and the present. In a sense, both titles echo a kind of transformation: Dickens through revolution and Hong Kong through the continuous renewal of the city. Both titles emphasise the tension of change, but while Dickens writes about two cities, we focus on one city continually rewriting its own story.
How does Blue Lotus Gallery reflect Hong Kong’s identity?
Hong Kong is a city of contrasts—from gleaming skyscrapers to quiet, historic alleyways. Photography is a powerful way to capture that diversity. Many of our exhibitions focus on capturing collective memories and cultural heritage. The work we show often highlights the tension between tradition and modernity in Hong Kong.
For me, it’s important that our gallery provides a platform for these stories. Hong Kong is changing so quickly that it’s important to document everything. The photography we exhibit helps preserve those stories and I hope that visitors leave our gallery with a deeper understanding of the complexity of this city.
What do you hope visitors take away from a visit to Blue Lotus Gallery or your presentation at Unseen?
I hope people leave with a deeper understanding of Hong Kong and the layers of this city. Art, and photography in particular, has the power to make people reflect on their own experiences and the world around them. I want visitors to not only appreciate the visual beauty of the works, but also the stories they tell. That’s ultimately what Blue Lotus is all about: telling photographic stories that stay with you.
Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze,Peculiar Proximity, Hong Kong 2021, Blue Lotus Gallery
