Wan Chai Contact

William was born in London in 1970, his early interest in science and design led to an engineering degree at Exeter University in England before beginning his photographic career in 1991. Initially William trained as portrait photographer assisting luminaries of the London scene such as Patrick Litchfield and Terry O’Neill. Life changed in 1993 when William was encouraged by friends to visit Hong Kong. Deng Xiaoping had proclaimed “To get rich is glorious” and the world’s focus had suddenly swung towards China. Fully intending to continue portrait photography on arriving in Hong Kong, his work took a marked change of direction. The alien visual landscape of Hong Kong reignited a fascination with documenting the immediate environment; the rural English landscapes of his youth now being replaced by the chaotic cityscapes of Asia. Initial simple and straight forward records on film developed into ever more complicated narratives through multiple exposures and contact sheets. William’s interest in cities led him to New York in 1999 with two years spent there developing his approach which today favours pre-visualisation of the image and in-camera manipulations to create a subjective but recognisable record of our time. Numerous exhibitons have been held of William’s work which features in collections in Hong Kong and elsewhere. His most recent show was a solo project at AIPAD in New York. He was also a winner of the Film and Analogue category at the 2019 International Photography Awards.