Embracing absurdity

“Hong Kong is surreal in its own right,” says Fung. “There are skyscrapers, double-decker buses, minibuses, the tram – these are some of the quintessential sights of the city. I want to present my own whimsical take on them.”

The results are deliberately exaggerated and provocative – from Hong Kong Island being blown away by a typhoon, to the Big Buddha wearing a face mask. Fung’s satirical representations of the absurdities of everyday life have struck a chord with the public, gaining him nearly 200,000 followers on Instagram and an ever-expanding list of branded collaborations.

Epiphany on a ferry ride

Fung’s family moved to Venezuela when he was just nine. When he moved back to Hong Kong in 2016, he could barely remember his birthplace, but he found much that inspired him, especially in the new: such as the East Coast Park Precinct in Fortress Hill, or the then under-development Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and M+ Museum.

Sitting on board the Star Ferry one day, flanked by skyscrapers on both sides of Victoria Harbour, Fung wondered how the city could best be captured through photography – and why he hadn’t seen anyone creating composite photographs using scenes from Hong Kong.

A year after his return to the city, he created the @SurrealHK Instagram account. His first post featured the Star Ferry itself, with Fung as a giant figure sitting on top of it – his first attempt to “capture a city through altered images”. With posts inspired by current affairs, social topics and daily life, he rapidly grew a following.

“People associate image editing with memes that are vulgar, if not downright bullying. But Photoshopping, if done professionally and meticulously, can add value to photography, in both an artistic and emotional sense,” says Fung.