© Ng Sai Kit, from the book 'Back To The Starting Point'

Sometimes I wonder when looking at a book what people will think of it in 30 to 40 years. Or maybe 100. This thought still teased me when "Back To The Starting Point", the latest book by Ng Sai Kit, reached me. I have been following his work for a few years; I was lucky enough to meet him in Hong Kong and write about his previous works. I have appreciated his spontaneous experimentation and his dedication to photography and photographic culture. For his apprenticeship and past educational activities in Hong Kong, I refer to a previous conversation with Sheung Yiu, published by Urbanautica in 2015. 

© Ng Sai Kit, from the book 'Back To The Starting Point'

© Ng Sai Kit, from the book 'Back To The Starting Point'

© Ng Sai Kit, from the book 'Back To The Starting Point'

Returning to the book: what could one think of it in many years? We would be surprised that there is no story, no particular event, no necessarily recognizable place. Black and white would accentuate this disorientation. Perhaps this would lead us to reflect on the author, on possible reasons, and what choices at the basis of Ng Sai Kit's work. What kind of work is it? In summary, I would say that it is an essay on the urban landscape and how we approach it. Nature is not lacking, but it is certainly not the prominent voice. There is something that keeps us anchored to artificial thinking. Vernacular attention seems almost suitable for building an inventory of objects. A helpful alphabet for describing a modern drift made of poles, guardrails, street lamps, nets and fences, walls, mirrors, glass, tiles, stairs, and handrails, and so on and on. What is all of this pointing at? What could this echo mean in the future? Perhaps a state of mind, a disposition, a temperament of the author. What kind of sensitivity are we addressing here?

© Ng Sai Kit, from the book 'Back To The Starting Point'

© Ng Sai Kit, from the book 'Back To The Starting Point'

© Ng Sai Kit, from the book 'Back To The Starting Point' 

There is one aspect that cannot be missed. The absence. Human figures are almost excluded. There is a complete silence that predisposes to contemplation, to a slow but fluid look. Fluid because the selection of images, fragments, and moments of time is calibrated with great care. Nothing accidental. There is a suave musicality to this book. But it takes refined hearing to notice it.

© Ng Sai Kit, from the book 'Back To The Starting Point'

In this almost liquid flow, one has the sensation of retracing a life. Maybe the life of the photographer. To perceive a retrospective atmosphere, almost as if the photographs were a gateway to understand the author's vision of the world, a visual exploratory path. To grasp a gradient of attention that knows how to notice surfaces, give importance to details, find spaces for catharsis in the most remote corners.

© Ng Sai Kit, from the book 'Back To The Starting Point'

© Ng Sai Kit, from the book 'Back To The Starting Point'

Perhaps tomorrow, we will ask ourselves looking at photographs like these if the artists dared to question the fate of the human species, what it builds, and what it loses behind. I see in Ng Sai Kit a romantic predisposition not to give up being surprised by the world of things. And above all that ability to elevate and bestow upon his own experience a greater dignity. In the search for one's origins, in the desire to observe one's practice a posteriori and cultivate a humble plot of it, it is perhaps a possible route to wisdom.

© Book 'Back To The Starting Point' by Ng Sai Kit, 2020

© Book 'Back To The Starting Point' by Ng Sai Kit, 2020

© Book 'Back To The Starting Point' by Ng Sai Kit, 2020

© Book 'Back To The Starting Point' by Ng Sai Kit, 2020

Book Back To The Starting Point' by Ng Sai Kit, 2020'