Miniature Hong Kong Dwellings Dramatically Squeezed into Frame

Fly on the wall photography highlights housing issues.

A professional photographer with a keen eye for spacious detail is great if you’re in the market to sell a reasonably-sized living space but you would be hard-pressed to find the right angle or lens needed to spruce up any of these tiny apartments.

Photographer Benny Lam and the Society for Community Organization (SoCO) shot a series of eye-opening photographs for an awareness campaign illustrating the cramped living conditions of Hong Kong’s poorer families who must reside in micro-apartments less than 40 square foot in size.

With 7 million people packed in a city smaller than that of Greater London, Hong Kong is one of the most expensive cities to rent or buy property in the world. Demand in prime areas has even led to apartments the size of a US parking space to be considered ‘luxury accommodation’.

Seven percent of land is currently zoned for residential use, architecture & density photographer Michael Wolf notes that each year the HK government releases a set of plots for bidding; this blue ocean strategy increases demand and continues to drive prices up on the property market.

In these set of photos, Lam was able to capture the rooms by fixing a camera to the ceiling and using remote trigger to take the shot, a wide-angle lens was used to pull the entirety of the space into frame.

The smallest apartment photographed was 28 square feet in size, rented by an unemployed single man.

Those residing in micro-apartments tend to be those from a low income background and either single, elderly, or seeking work; some residents need to wait years to be considered for public housing.

[article provided for Bokeh]