Paul Yeung: Yes Madam, Sorry Ah Sir
A Hong Kong photobook like no other
Hong Kong photographer Paul Yeung, previously featured in our Hong Kong & Taiwan Curation for Angkor Photo Festival 2015, has just launched a crowd-funding campaign for his first photobook Yes Madam, Sorry Ah Sir, a satirical exposition of the Hong Kong Police.
Paul received critical acclaim for The Flower Show and was also a finalist in the 7th Three Shadows Photography Award in 2015. He was a former chairman of the Hong Kong Press Photographers Association (HKPPA), and has received more than 15 awards from The Newspaper Society of Hong Kong and HKPPA. At the Hong Kong Photography Festival 2010, he was selected as one of Fourteen Hong Kong New Generation Photographers.
Yes Madam, Sorry Ah Sir will be published by brownie publishing ltd. (Hong Kong) and will include essays from Lee Wei-i (Taiwan), founder and editor-in-chief of Voices of Photography magazine; Kevin WY Lee (Singapore). Founder of Invisible Photographer Asia (IPA); and Mr. Blues Wong (Hong Kong), photography critic, independent curator and Hong Kong Photography Consultant of Leisure and Cultural Services Department. The book will be designed by Mr. Xu Rui-shen (Taiwan), founder of XUXUGraphic and designer of “Voices of Photography” magazine.
(Preliminary book designs; final design TBC)
Paul’s crowd-funding campaign has on offer some novel rewards and a hilarious pitch video (below).
Paul Yeung introduces his debut book: “Yes Madam, Sorry Ah Sir will be my first photobook. I hope to raise sufficient funds to publish this distinctive compilation of photos.
A friend said I should publish such a controversial material as soon as possible because authorities might clamp down on creative freedom in the future – it could be an offence in Macau to film and photograph the police without authorization. I don’t think my speech freedom is very restricted now, but I agree that the future is rather bleak. In fact, we have already faced unforeseen difficulties when approaching companies to print and bind this photobook.
At first, we wanted to publish the photobook in hardcover. But we had to drop the plan because it was impossible to persuade printers on the mainland to handle books on this subject. We have tried to reach out to local printers, but they also shy away from political work. That’s why we resorted to printing the photobook in Taiwan and have it delivered to Hong Kong, even though the production cost will inevitably soar.
Paul Yeung: Yes Madam, Sorry Ah Sir
The idea of documenting the police at work with my camera was born amidst waves of protests against building a high-speed railway to Guangzhou. As a photojournalist, I was curious how a day in life as a police officer looked like at a time when the government and the police have become increasingly sensitive towards rallies, authorities kept demonstrators under close surveillance and deployed excess forces to maintain law and order. Did the officers understand what they are doing? Why is this occupation so under-studied? What is our impression of the police force?”
Crowd-funding Page in English:
http://www.dreamna.com/lang/ch/projects/yes-madam-sorry-ah-sir-photobook/
Crowd-funding Page in Chinese:
http://www.dreamna.com/lang/en/projects/yes-madam-sorry-ah-sir-photobook/
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