Christian Åslund: "Honkey Kong"
By Billy Kung
In 2013, Christian Åslund, the Stockholm-based photographer, made his second trip to Hong Kong, this time, with a little more on his mind. Inspired by Hong Kong's dense urban landscape, Åslund came with plans to execute a new photographic series, "Honkey Kong" (2013), as part of an advertising campaign, which uses the city's streets as background to images resembling those seen in platform video games.
Åslund scouted numerous locations that could provide him with the accurate perspective—many of the streets had to be of proper width to achieve the effect he desired. Taken from dizzying heights on roofs of Hong Kong's skyscrapers, Åslund was armed with a long tele-photo lens and had radio contact with his subjects on ground level. He sought a flat perspective, giving the illusion of the depicted figure below as a video game avatar who is navigating through Hong Kong's streets, similar to the side-scrolling, two-dimensional video games of the 1980s. Instilled with playfulness and a sense of adventure, the series provides a fresh look at an urban surrounding we have become too familiar with.
