Self Promenade: Hong Kong Self Lovers

EVERY DAY PHOTOGRAPHERS AROUND THE WORLD looking for new ways to tell stories or to capture what we previously did not notice. We choose interesting photo projects and ask their authors what they wanted to say. This week we are publishing the project "Self Promenade", filmed by a duet of photographers Naveen Cala from India and Louise Dorr from Brazil. The series was born during the journey of Kala and Dorr to Hong Kong: the photographers were amazed at what others did and did that they took selfies and literally documented every step they took while taking pictures on a smartphone.

Navin does not consider himself a photographer, but from time to time he takes pictures, but I started studying photography three years ago, and before that I was a designer. "Self Promenade" we came up with and shot at the "Walk of Stars" in Hong Kong and still continue to work on this project. Then the shootings became for us something like a photohunt that lasted three weeks. As a result, we have accumulated more than 100 photos.

We were amazed at how much Chinese people like to take selfies: just imagine the maximum number of people per square meter who shoot self-portraits - that's how much everyone there is passionate about selfies. Locals are documenting their every move and as if trying to stake out every centimeter of this world behind them, taking a photo in the style of "I was here too." This is their desire to understand. Our life is an abstraction: we live in an artificial world, surrounded by a context of imposed rituals. Selfies help us make sense of life and analyze our actions. In a sense, this is a great way to fully understand yourself and your place in the world.

We thought whether to remove the same project in another country and another city, but quickly abandoned the idea. The "Self Promenade" makes the light characteristic of the Hong Kong spring special: it makes you feel as if you are in a huge lightbox. Because of this light, the very concept of self acquires an even more universal meaning.