Capturing the Soul of the City: ‘Pieces of Hong Kong’ - A Photography Group Show Curated by Derry Ainsworth at the Affordable Art Fair 2026
- Derry Ainsworth
- 4 days ago
- 8 min read
14-17 May at Affordable Art Fair 2026 - HKCEC
The vibrant pulse of Hong Kong has long served as an inexhaustible muse for creatives worldwide, but capturing its complex, fast-evolving essence requires a deep understanding of its layered identity. This May, at the 13th edition of the Affordable Art Fair Hong Kong, photography formally claimed center stage with the debut of ‘Pieces of Hong Kong’.
Curated by acclaimed photographer and digital artist Derry Ainsworth, this highly anticipated group feature brought together a mosaic of visual narratives from six prominent Hong Kong-based artists. The showcase successfully bridged the gap between passive viewing and art ownership, challenging traditional gallery elitism by inviting fairgoers to bring an authentic, tangible fragment of the city into their own living spaces.
The Curator: Derry Ainsworth
At the helm of this photography showcase is Derry Ainsworth, a British-born professional photographer and videographer who has spent over a decade documenting the urban evolution of Hong Kong. Renowned for his striking architectural perspectives, cinematic street scenes, and dynamic drone photography, Ainsworth’s work is characterized by a masterful manipulation of scale, light, and color. From the dense, neon-soaked grids of Mong Kok to sweeping harbor views, his images explore how humanity navigates, adapts to, and shapes monumental urban spaces.
As the curator of ‘Pieces of Hong Kong’ - and serving concurrently as the fair’s official photographer - Ainsworth conceived the showcase to address a historical imbalance in the contemporary art world.
"I felt that photography often lacks the representation it deserves at major art fairs compared to traditional mediums like painting or sculpture," Ainsworth notes. "I wanted to give these photographers a dedicated platform to show that photography is an essential, highly collectable art form that belongs on your walls. It’s an opportunity for visitors to find a deep personal resonance with an image, look past the frame, and literally take a piece of Hong Kong home with them."
Ainsworth's dual role during the fair gave him a unique perspective. While his eye was focused on capturing the energy of the event itself, his curatorial vision was fixed on fostering a community where local and international artists could showcase the city's identity. His curation reflects a deep-rooted passion for the medium, ensuring that each selected print was presented with the museum-grade quality and meticulous framing that fine art photography demands.
Curation, Accessibility, and the Collector’s Experience
The core philosophy behind the curation of ‘Pieces of Hong Kong’ is democratic accessibility, directly mirroring the overarching ethos of the Affordable Art Fair: “See Art. Love Art. Own Art.”
Ainsworth carefully structured the exhibition to break down the intimidating barriers often associated with high-end art acquisition. In traditional gallery spaces, photography can sometimes feel distant, locked behind elite price tags or cryptic editions. By ensuring clear, transparent pricing alongside pieces that catered specifically to emerging buyers, this curated space served as a welcoming entry point for first-time collectors.
Rather than presenting a singular, uniform vision of the city, the curation explicitly embraced fragmentation. It allowed diverse photographic styles - from hyper-saturated drone shots to moody architectural minimalism - to coexist without hierarchy. This juxtaposition created a multi-sensory visual dialogue that forced viewers to re-examine corners of Hong Kong they might walk past every day. For fair guests, the space functioned as a creative playground where they could connect directly with local narratives, discover the stories behind the lenses, and actively participate in the preservation of Hong Kong culture. Pieces of Hong Kong - Media and Press The debut of the ‘Pieces of Hong Kong’ photography showcase generated substantial buzz across major cultural and mainstream media outlets, solidifying fine art photography’s rightful place at the fair. Notably, The South China Morning Post (SCMP) highlighted the exhibition as a premier attraction of the cultural calendar, praising how it took center stage alongside international installations to brilliantly capture the city's layered identity through six distinct local lenses. Meanwhile, a dedicated feature by Ming Pao Daily praised Derry Ainsworth’s vision as a vital effort to promote "recorders of Hong Kong's eras," emphasizing how the physical curation rescues transient urban landscapes from the ephemerality of social media feeds and preserves them as tangible, collectable art pieces for the home.
The conversation extended well beyond print, capturing major airwaves and regional spotlights. Ainsworth joined RTHK Radio 3’s CultureZine for an in-depth interview, discussing his dual role as both the fair's official photographer and the exhibition's curator, while advocating for the emotional power and long-term historical importance of printing and framing local street narratives. Furthermore, the exhibition was officially spotlighted by Brand Hong Kong, which championed 'Pieces of Hong Kong' as a key cultural milestone of the fair that showcased the city's enduring dynamism, creative energy, and "East-meets-West" spirit to an international audience.
Media & Press Coverage Index
Below is an extensive list of the media outlets, arts publications, and official channels that provided comprehensive coverage, reviews, and features on the show:
South China Morning Post (SCMP) – Featured in a prominent cultural guide detailing the fair's major artistic highlights and profiling photography's elevated, center-stage presence at the event.
Ming Pao Daily (明報) – Published an in-depth cultural feature and critique focusing on Derry Ainsworth's curatorial vision and the role of the six photographers as vital "recorders of Hong Kong's eras."
RTHK Radio 3 (CultureZine) – Broadcasted an exclusive, comprehensive audio interview with curator Derry Ainsworth discussing fine art photography accessibility and the stories behind the collective works.
#legend Magazine (Hashtag Legend) – Published an extensive feature previewing the fair's most anticipated curated presentations, highlighting the photography feature as an essential stop for new collectors.
The Standard (Hong Kong) – Provided wide-reaching news coverage on the debut of the photography feature as a major institutional milestone for the fair's 13th edition.
Brand Hong Kong – Officially highlighted and promoted the group showcase as a premier display of local creative talent and urban visual heritage.
Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) official feature – Partnered to cross-promote the exhibition's distinct viewpoints, inviting locals and tourists alike to rediscover the city's character through the curators' eyes.
Affordable Art Fair Editorial & Global Inspiration Channels – Published official curator profiles and dedicated digital essays detailing the project's philosophy, the collector experience, and an analysis of the individual artist styles.
Six Lenses, One City: The Photographers and Their Styles
The true strength of ‘Pieces of Hong Kong’ lies in its calculated diversity. Ainsworth selected six distinct artists, each offering a fundamentally different aesthetic, technical, and conceptual approach to documenting the territory.
1. Derry Ainsworth: The Cinematic Scale
Ainsworth’s own contributions to the show, such as his vivid piece Chasing Colours, exemplify his signature style: high-energy, vibrant, and geometrically precise. Utilizing both grand aerial vantage points and intimate, split-second frames captured from moving public transport—like the upper deck of a Central tram—Ainsworth transforms the everyday chaos of the city into a hyper-real, cinematic canvas. His work emphasizes the constant motion, layered infrastructure, and electric colour palette that define the modern territory, turning urban congestion into a beautiful visual symphony.
2. Jeremy Cheung: The Graphic Urbanist
Jeremy Cheung possesses an extraordinary eye for the geometry, patterns, and negative spaces hidden within Hong Kong's dense concrete jungle. His style leans heavily into architectural minimalism, sharp contrast, and visual symmetry. Cheung documents how human beings interact with rigid spatial design, often framing solitary subjects against massive, repetitive public housing estates or stark structural lines. In doing so, he captures a quiet, almost spiritual poetry within intense urban density, proving that there is order and peace to be found amidst the structural chaos.
3. Sean Foley: The Archivist of the Forgotten
Sean Foley takes a deeply atmospheric, storytelling approach to the city. His evocative piece Forgotten highlights his focus on nostalgia, texture, and the unforgiving passage of time. Foley seeks out the vanishing elements of old Hong Kong—weathered storefronts, fading hand-painted calligraphy on iron shutters, and historic urban corners that stand on the precipice of demolition or redevelopment. His moody lighting and rich, tactile compositions evoke a poignant sense of memory, prompting viewers to slow down and honor what once was.
4. Marcel Heijnen: The Intimate Biographer
Best known globally for his critically acclaimed lifestyle and animal portraiture series, Marcel Heijnen brings a warm, humanistic, and deeply intimate perspective to the exhibition. Heijnen’s work intentionally moves away from the grand architectural scale to focus on the small, bustling micro-communities embedded within traditional neighborhoods. His imagery captures the quiet, unscripted relationships between shopkeepers, local residents, and the traditional elements of daily Hong Kong commerce. Through his lens, the city feels less like a corporate monolith and more like a collection of interconnected, beating hearts.
5. Jay Khan: The Moody Subculture Narrative
Jay Khan explores the nocturnal and subcultural identity of Hong Kong. His photography utilizes high-contrast chiaroscuro lighting, deep shadows, and rich, saturated tones to paint a noir-like picture of the city after dark. Khan’s work often feels like a still from a classic Wong Kar-wai film, focusing on wet pavements reflecting neon lights, alleyways shrouded in steam and shadow, and the enigmatic characters that inhabit the city's thriving culinary and nightlife scenes. He captures the magic that only reveals itself when the sun goes down.
6. Carlo Yuen: The Natural & Spatial Synchronicity
Carlo Yuen masterfully explores the dramatic intersection where Hong Kong's hyper-dense urbanity meets its sweeping natural landscapes. Yuen’s photography captures the striking contrast between the organic silhouettes of the city's rolling green mountains and the rigid verticality of its skyscrapers. His clean, wide-angle compositions emphasize a rare geographical balance, showcasing how the natural environment, changing weather conditions, and architectural ambition converge to create a unique topography found nowhere else on Earth.
The Power of Fine Art Photography
The arrival of 'Pieces of Hong Kong' sparks an essential conversation on why photography remains an irreplaceable, vital art form in the contemporary era. In an age where digital images are consumed rapidly and disposably on smartphone screens, a physical, curated exhibition reinstates the gravity of the printed image.
Far from being a mere mechanical recording of reality, fine art photography is an act of deliberate, artistic intention. The photographer manipulates shutter speed, chemical or digital exposure, light, perspective, and composition to elevate a fleeting fraction of a second into an enduring emotional artifact. It bridges the gap between objective reality and raw human emotion, transforming the ordinary into something transcendent. When an image is printed, framed, and hung on a wall, it demands that the viewer stop, linger, and look deeper into the frame, creating a lasting relationship between the artwork and the space it inhabits.
The Cultural Urgency of Documenting Hong Kong
In a city as mercurial as Hong Kong, the act of visual documentation carries a profound cultural and historical urgency. Hong Kong is defined by constant, restless transformation. Old neon signs are systematically dismantled, traditional wet markets make way for glass-and-steel shopping malls, historic streetscapes evolve overnight, and cultural subtexts shift across generations.
To photograph Hong Kong is to participate in an active project of historical preservation. The works displayed in 'Pieces of Hong Kong' do not merely capture light on a sensor; they preserve the city's contemporary visual identity before it morphs into its next iteration. They form a living archive of its architecture, its communities, its unique "East-meets-West" heritage, and its transient emotional moods.
By providing a platform where fair guests can actively acquire these works, Derry Ainsworth’s curation ensures that these vital, fragmented stories of Hong Kong survive. They are rescued from transient digital feeds and placed where they belong: in the homes of people who love the city, keeping the true spirit of Hong Kong alive on walls across the globe.
The 13th edition of the Affordable Art Fair Hong Kong took place at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC), showcasing local and international contemporary art to thousands of art enthusiasts and collectors.
Exhibition gallery:
Buy limited edition Derry Ainsworth Acrylic Glass prints from the show:
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