When I feel down I take a train to the Happy Valley
Hardcover, 67 photographs, 120 pages
Photography and design: Pierfrancesco Celada
Layout: bruno, Venice
Image toning: Melissa Pallini
Printed at Grafiche Veneziane, Venice
ISBN: 9791221068788
size: 26 x 20 cm
muddyisland, 2024
Hong Kong is a place of strong contrasts; a claustrophobic urban environment surrounded by water and uncontained nature. Occasionally, while walking in the city, you could spot a tram go past; its destination sign reading “Happy Valley”, its terminal stop. In those moments, when you feel the weight of the city on your shoulders, I like to imagine that it does offer a sense of hope.
I lived in Hong Kong with my family between 2014 and 2022. During these seven years, with the aid of visual metaphors, I have analysed my own relationship with the city, with the intent of drawing a portraiture of Hong Kong and its complex and multilayered realities.