Hong Kong, being one of the busiest cities in the world, is always rich in material for photography and videography. Flying a drone over there with the intention of emphasizing the intricate geometric aspects which the city is famous for, can be quite mind blowing.
Mariana Bisti, a Greek professional photographer, is the first to show these geometric details as well as the enormous scale of the city through a drone-shot-short video. Her fascination by Hong Kong was evident during the filming of every scene of the 8-minute clip.
The video comprises short shots of pedestrians walking down the street, busy roads loaded with traffic, residential blocks of different social standards, and the silhouette of the mountains behind the tall towers. Bisti who is an architect, as well as a cinematographer, excelled in capturing a series of panoramic scenes zooming in and out of the city blocks. The accuracy of every frame in this video is bewildering and how Bisti managed to align each composition to the Cartesian Plane is absolutely amazing. Here, watch her video and observe the geometry of Asia’s World City.
Recently, Hong Kong photographer Andy Yeung has released a series of aerial images of the dense Kowloon Walled City, north of Hong Kong. His images, also, reveal the characteristic verticality of Hong Kong’s urbanism. You can check Yeung’s photographs here.
Emily Reyes is a Brooklyn-based architecture writer and Article Curator at Arch2O, known for her sharp eye for experimental design and critical theory. A graduate of the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), Emily’s early work explored speculative urbanism and the boundaries between digital form and physical space. After a few years in Los Angeles working with boutique studios on concept-driven installations, she pivoted toward editorial work, drawn by the need to contextualize and critique the fast-evolving architectural discourse. At Arch2O, she curates articles that dissect emerging technologies, post-anthropocentric design, and contemporary spatial politics. Emily also lectures occasionally and contributes essays to independent design journals across North America.