DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE is Jordon's first solo self-published photo zine and exhibition showcasing a collection of photographs made in Hong Kong from March 25th to 29th, 2024.

Project Statement

Ceded to the British Empire after the First Opium War in 1841, Hong Kong now faces political and social uneasiness as a result of the 1997 handover back to China; a push and pull between its unique identity and mainland Chinese ruling. Multiple mass protests over the past decades have shaken up the region’s core, drawing the attention of the world and myself, a child of Hong Kong immigrants.

In March 2024, for the first time in my adult life my wife and I visited Hong Kong, to explore and photograph the place where my family is from. Photography has been an ongoing practice, guiding my life and helping me to understand it. The pictures I make often raise new questions. What do my photos reflect back to me?

I began imagining my life if my parents had not immigrated to Canada. That could’ve been me smoking that cigarette. That could’ve been me holding my mother’s hand on the way to school. That could’ve been me lying on the grass - stressing about work, love, cultural erasure, police brutality.

What does it mean to be a Hong Kong Chinese settler living on the messy and complex land of so-called “Canada”? I have seen the destructive process of colonialism on Indigenous peoples’ ways of knowing and being, while my parents and grandparents proudly decorate their condos’ windows with maple leaves on July 1st. We should be proud and grateful for what coming here has given us, right?

‘Do you see what I see?’ is a rhetorical question posed to the strangers in my photographs. How similar are we? What does freedom mean to you? What did my parents leave behind? How do you see me?

Limited copies of the first edition Risograph printed photo zine, Risograph prints, stickers, and incense sticks were available for purchase at the exhibition. Click here for the web store page for remaining products from the project. A portion of proceeds were donated to Water Warriors YEG and Islamic Relief Canada’s Palestine Emergency Fund.