Ridge to Reef
Published with The Nature Conservancy, 2018-2022
For me, Hong Kong is not a city. It is a piece of wild punctured by the incredible vibrancy of human life and construction, but, ultimately, it is nature that makes Hong Kong so special. This is a rare take for those who have not gone outside the domain of the city skyscrapers, but for organizations like The Nature Conservancy, this is a fact well known. What makes the region particularly special is the diversity of elevation, and therefore habitat here. The mountains drop nearly 1000m to the sea, going from alpine to nearly tropical in a matter of miles.
The concept of “Ridge to Reef” captures the importance of this diversity and connection. In sum, it is the idea that whatever happens on the mountains - erosion, littering, fire, etc. - affects the downstream ecology, all the way to the health of the surprisingly biodiverse mudflats and thick mangrove forests growing at the edge of the sea.
I worked with The Nature Conservancy in Hong Kong for four years on and off to document this concept while in China. Starting by capturing their efforts to restore oyster reefs, which are essential habitats for small creatures and water filters in ocean ecosystems, to shooting a larger documentary film project about the interconnection between land and ocean (which you can see on the Films page), this project brought me to corners of Hong Kong seldom seen. But these are surely the corners that matter the most for the continuation of human and wild flourishing on this enchanting pocket of earth.
