Vertical Hong Kong

By WSJ Staff

In his ‘Vertical Horizon’ project, 26-year-old French graphic artist and photographer Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze captures Hong Kong’s soaring heights. The project, now a book, comprises 80 photos taken in 2012. A dozen of Mr. Jacquet-Lagrèze’s photos are currently on display in Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui district as part of Le French May cultural festival.

All photographs by Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze.

Hong Kong is famed for its skyline, but graphic artist and photographer Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze takes viewers on a different visual journey: looking up.

In his ‘Vertical Horizon’ project, the 26-year-old Frenchman captures the city’s vertical angles.

His wide-angle Sigma lens with a 10 mm focal length avoids distorting the urban landscape’s straight lines.

‘Fisheye lenses bend the edges of the photos to make it curvy, while my lens doesn’t,’ the photographer said.

Mr. Jacquet-Lagrèze arrived in Hong Kong in 2009 and bought his first single-lens reflex camera the following year.

He started shooting vertical images in 2011, and in early 2012 decided to capture as much of the city as possible.

The project, now a book, comprises 80 photos taken between January and July of that year.

Images were taken from the ground at eye level, a height that reinforces the viewer’s feeling of immersion and verticality.

‘Hong Kong is an incredible source of inspiration to me,’ he said, though looking up at the sky sometimes has its risks.

For instance, ‘many times I have to stand in the middle of the road, but I’m cautious and haven’t suffered any accidents,’ he said.

When he needs to hold his camera still for night shots, ’I use what I find around me: a sign, a chair, a sidewalk fence.’ He avoids using a tripod.

A dozen of Mr. Jacquet-Lagrèze’s vertical images are currently on show in Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui district as part of Le French May cultural festival.