FAHTHAI
19
BIGGERPICTURE
film noir
Hong Kong
Patrick Zachmann, also a Magnum photographer,
often works in black and white when shooting
images of people. “I want to give priority to
emotion and to be close to them. In my mind,
colour is perfect when I want to keep a distance
between me and my subject, such as when I shoot
landscapes and architecture.” This image of suited
office workers slouching by a jigsaw puzzle of
a building in Kowloon in 1987 could well have
been shot in colour, but Zachmann says he was
passionate about monochrome at the time. “This
picture, which is about the Chinese diaspora,
evokes the past so it was crucial that I shoot it in
black and white.” Aesthetically, it works as colours
would only serve to distract in such a cluttered
image. Zachmann’s work centres around identity,
memory and migration. “My concept was to shoot
everything that was intimate or hidden to the
foreigner in black and white while using colour to
shoot the ‘bright’ side of reality.”
