City of DarknessGreg Girard
City of Darkness
Life in Kowloon Walled City
by Greg Girard · first published 1993
11mentions
10recommended by
11HN commenters
2013–2026first – last mentioned
91% recommend9% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Photo essay documenting daily life inside Kowloon Walled City, a settlement that no longer exists. It serves as a photographic record of the place and is presented as a striking coffee-table book.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
A recount about life in Kowloon Walled City by a photographer who spent four years there during the 1990's. Includes photographs, interviews, and interesting essays.
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You don't find too many details about Kowloon floating around, which is a shame since it was quite a unique settlement. The best source of information about it is probably a photo essay called "City of Darkness" (http://www.amazon.com/City-Darkness-Life-Kowloon-Walled/dp/1...) which is frequently out of print, but which I highly recommend if you can snag a copy. It's a fascinating historical document in its…
on “Inside Caracas' Tower of David, the World's Tallest Slum” ↗Have you seen the book "City of Darkness"? (http://www.amazon.com/City-Darkness-Life-Kowloon-Walled/dp/1...). It's the best photoessay I know on a place that doesn't exist anymore. One of the more interesting parts of that Wikipedia article…
on “With fluxspaces, San Francisco is using shadow real estate to grow inward” ↗If you were ever looking for a coffee table book that may ensnare a guest's attention if they choose to pick it up and 'glance' through it, City of Darkness is one of the best. Unfortunately, it is now a collector's item now (hundreds of dollars) http://www.amazon.com/City-Darkness-Life-Kowloon-Walled/dp/1... Note: There is a 2nd edition coming out soon…
on “Detailed Cross-section of the Kowloon Walled City” ↗City of Darkness (Ian Lambot, Greg Girard) is also great. A reprint is available, I think.
on “The Strange Saga of Kowloon Walled City” ↗Funny how they use the term "City of Darkness" a few times, without ever referring to the book "City of Darkness", by Greg Girard and Ian Lambot, from which most of the pictures in the article come. Strongly recommended. https://cityofdarkness.co.uk/
on “The Saga of Kowloon Walled City” ↗A successfully backed Kickstarter project for a 2nd edition of the book City of Darkness, which features really great documentary photographs of Kowloon Walled City: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1060791749/city-of-dark...
on “Kowloon Walled City” ↗…One of the best documentaries IMHO is the following 4 part series from 1989 which shows the everyday life in KWC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lby9P3ms11w I also recommend the already mentioned book City of Darkness and movie Chungking Express. Additional Jackie Pullinger‘s books "Crack In The Wall: Life & Death in Kowloon Walled City" (http://amzn.to/1nNKkuq) and "Chasing the Dragon" (http://amzn.to/1kd9zWc) are…
on “Kowloon Walled City” ↗I was lucky enough to get my hands on the first edition of City Of Darkness before it became pricey, I heartily recommend that book. The "no laws and/or regulations in KWC" is a bit of a myth though, HK police began patrolling the place in the early 70s, plus despite its legal…
on “Kowloon Walled City” ↗To be clear, "Kowloon" is different from "Kowloon Walled City". And, yes, they did have very small manufacturing inside. I highly recommend that you find a copy of this (in)famous book about it: << City of Darkness>> (https://cityofdarkness.co.uk).
on “Tidal Energy Is Not Renewable” ↗There's a great book called "City of Darkness" about it - a lot of what we believe about it was a campaign funded by the Hong Kong government to turn public opinion about it negative because they wanted the land back from China. Most of the reason…
on “In San Francisco, Even $180k Tech Salaries Are No Longer Enough” ↗There is a rather pricey and huge book on Kowloon: City of Darkness: Life In Kowloon Walled City by Ian Lambot.
on “Detailed Cross-Section of the Kowloon Walled City (2014)” ↗