Never-before-seen photos of Hong Kong life in 1950s released by wealthy Kadoorie family
Images shed light on daily life in the city at a time when hand-held cameras were rare
It may be hard to believe, but there was a time in Hong Kong when an instant response and instant gratification was not the norm and it was possible to stop and enjoy the moment.
A set of never-before-seen photos has been released by one of the city’s most famous business families with the aim of bringing back memories of that period. The images show moments of 1950s Hong Kong captured by Lawrence Kadoorie – a business tycoon who inherited his fortune from his father Elly Kadoorie – using a hand-held 8mm spy camera. The Minox camera was owned by very few people in Hong Kong during the 1950s and was made popular as a spy tool during the second world war.
“At the time my father took pictures, nobody carried a camera because cameras were very bulky,” son of Lawrence Kadoorie, Michael Kadoorie, said.
“Being very small you could keep [the Minox camera] in your pocket, so inevitably ... he was able to take pictures of what he saw immediately; pictures that would not be available simply because you wouldn’t normally be carrying a camera.
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“As a result of that, there are a number of pictures which bring back the times of the day.”
