Hong Kong-based photographer Romain Jacquet-Lagrѐze likes to look up. In his recent book Vertical Horizons, he explores an often under appreciated perspective of the city’s skyline.
The French native told CNN that even though it’s not the first metropolis he’s lived in, Hong Kong was the first to spark his skyscraper obsession. "I'm used to big cities, Tokyo is very dense and huge but less impressive in terms of height -- it's much more spread out. Hong Kong is more striking in that sense."
"Whenever we are caught in our daily life, we just go from point A to point B, we tend to ignore what's around us. But I find that above us there are plenty of details to look at, [these high-rises] are like streets going up vertically ... it just so happens that you have to use elevators to move through them."
Jacquet-Lagrѐze photographed in the early mornings and late nights in order to avoid back-lighting when taking his photos. "I tend to prefer the days that are cloudy. In Hong Kong you have clouds that are very low and the light of the city reflects on the clouds."
"One thing that is special about Hong Kong, comparatively with other cities, is that they don't set any limits," says Jacquet-Lagrѐze. "There seems to be a lot of freedom for property developers to build what they want."
Perhaps the same could be said about Saigon where little attention is paid to zoning or height restrictions (if they even exist).
Are these photos a peek of Saigon’s future?
[CNN]
