Supects in Reality

Since 2014, I have collected newspaper clippings documenting crime in Hong Kong. In these images, suspects are typically photographed with their heads covered in black cloth, a visual convention in Hong Kong photojournalism intended to conceal their identities while they are handcuffed and escorted by the police. Their clothing draws my attention. The words, symbols, and images printed on their clothes often produce striking moments of contradiction and irony within the scene of arrest. Across my collection of 50 newspaper clippings, the interplay of text, symbol, and image generates a layered sense of dissonance and confusion. Unintentionally, these clothes reveal traces of the suspects’ everyday lives and beliefs, offering a fleeting glimpse of individuality within the rigid visual language of crime reporting.

Supects in Reality
Yip Kin Bon, Elvis, 2025

27 x 36 cm