Photography has witnessed a number of revolutions ever since it was invented in the early 19th century. To begin with, the camera was used as a tool for recording history, and it has thus played an important role in preserving objective images of different eras. But as the science and technology of photography have constantly evolved over the approximately two hundred years of its development, a continual revolution has been underway, the various stages of which can be marked by the emergence of traditional roll-film cameras, the Polaroid, fully automated cameras (point-and-shoot cameras) as well as the digital camera and camera phones. Under these circumstances, photography has gradually gone beyond the traditional task of providing a social record to become an effective media for artists to express their personalities and points of view. It is now an indispensable modern art form, in which photographers are increasingly emphasizing the fact that the world is observed through one's own eyes and attaching importance to the expression of individual opinions in their photographic works.


Looking at how the manufacture of cameras has evolved, the first part of this exhibition showcases a number of cameras collected by Mr David Chan that date back as far as one hundred years. Alongside this technical exploration, it also probes the development of the photographic art in a display of selected works by a group of senior local photographers including Kan Hing-fook, Tchan Fou-li, Leo K.K. Wong and Ngan Chun-tung. In the second part, the exhibition presents the diversity of modern photography through the works of five contemporary artists – Almond Chu Tak-wah, So Hing-keung, Bobby Sham Ka-ho, Lam Wai-kit and Chow Chun-fai – and aims to bring the viewer into the uniquely fascinating world of photography that uses the lens as a mirror for personal identity.