Magnum Editions: Harbor of Kowloon. Hong Kong, 1952

Werner Bischof was born in Switzerland in 1916. He studied photography with Hans Finsler in his native Zurich at the School for Arts and Crafts, before opening a photography and advertising studio. Disliking the “superficiality and sensationalism” of the magazine business, he devoted much of his working life to exploring the order and tranquility found in traditional cultures around the world. Pictured here in 1952, the Harbour of Kowloon appears as an echo of its present self. This image and others like it serve as a stark reminder of the colonial heritage of Hong Kong; before the skyscrapers, the satellites and the computer technology.