The 20 Women Project - A Hong Kong Portrait Series
Conceived at the start of the pandemic, the 20 women project (styled as WX2020) is a showcase of extraordinary women in Hong Kong. Originally planned for twenty subjects, the project was halted due to Julia’s hospitalisation and subsequent cancer diagnosis. This selection remains as testament to dreaming big dreams and shouting your admiration from the rooftops.
Movement is life, life is movement – Victoria Akhurst
If I were to reflect on being a little girl in the sunset of the past Millenium, we fell into three categories:
The Sports Girls – thin as whips, but strong, wiry and fast. Good at swimming, gymnastics, you name it.
The Horse Girls - naming horse breeds, drawing horses, talking about horses. Incidentally, these girls were also really good at braiding hair.
The Dance Girls - the ones with hair so perfectly pulled back hair it reflected light. Delicate wrists and ramrod posture. Immaculate clothes and access to eyeshadow.
Learning apart, together – Sandra Webster
I finished high school half a lifetime ago, but I still cannot comfortably call a teacher by their first name. For me, a teacher commands respect. Even my daughter’s teachers, some of whom are significantly younger than me, I still call Mr. and Mrs.
Rugby, yoga and hope dash of ichthy – Mui Thomas
Growing up, we all want to be special. To stand out from the crowd – be immediately recognisable. We say to those we love “You’re one in a million! One of a kind!” But we don’t consider the flip side. What if you were so special, so exceedingly rare, that your very existence makes news?
From little people big ideas grow – Sarah Garner
There are few events as formative in a woman’s life as the birth of her first child. It is a time to reflect, and see a whole world open… a world changed from “Me” to “Us”. It galvanizes, jolts us into a state of hyper-awareness. For Sarah Garner, this jolt led to the creation of one of Hong Kong’s most recognizable children’s brands – Retykle.
Life is still a playground of possibilities – Kay Ross
I met Kay when I was photographing the first HK Green Is the New Black Conscious Festival in 2018. She was speaking on her most well-known project The Playground of Possibilities a deck of 52 cards, each asking the reader a question. Each card is designed to inspire the reader to seek out the good, flip the narrative, and find a light in the dark.