How it all began


For several years now, I've been taking photos of boat hulls when they are up in dry-dock, at different boatyards in Hong Kong.


This rather odd journey started one day when I accompanied my husband to help work on his boat, which was out of the water, in Middle Island. As I was waiting for him to finish something, I went for a saunter under the boat, and this is when I noticed mysterious marks on the hull. I took a quick photo on my phone, sent it to my wonderfully arty and inquisitive friend Barbara, with the caption "20 guesses what this is!". Many Whatsapp messages later, she admitted defeat, and still had no clue what she was looking at - I loved that! I was delighted that a simple photograph could stimulate the imagination so, and provoke such a kaleidoscope of questions.


Once out of the water, the hulls, propellers, keels and rudders all reveal the unseen adventures - or misadventures- of these boats, before they are repaired, cleaned and polished, and given a new lease of life.
I find these imperfections absolutely beautiful, the barnacles, bumps and bruises, the scars and scratches, and the peeling paint all have a story to tell.


Then come the first stages of the repair process, from manually scraping-away, to using electric polishing tools, etc. These give some of the funkiest whirls and lines on the hulls surface.


And as an added bonus, once they are ready to go back into the water, having been lovingly restored, polished and painted back to 'as new', they are equally mesmerising and beautiful!


Not all hulls have this hidden treasure, and I know immediately which ones have something to offer me - or not.
After each photo session in the docks, I'm impatient to discover what the new hulls have to reveal, and to proceed with divulging their unseen secrets.


During post-editing, I play with light and shadows, contrast and colour, cropping plays a large part, and I watch as details come to the fore, and the photos come to life.


Out of context, and apart from the obvious images with a propeller, it would be impossible to know what one is looking at, leaving one's imagination to interpret each unique photograph as it likes, free of constraints.