Hong Kong Bathed in the Blue Tinge of the Setting Sun

The first time Hong Kong-based photographer Romain Jacquet-Lagreze saw the color blue drench the city was not unlike falling in love. It was a warm day in summer, and as the sun set, the sky cast an azure shroud over the metropolis below. He was infatuated and intoxicated by the twinkling night—as he puts it, he had “a crush” on the light— and over the next two years he would devote summertime to chasing The Blue Moment.

The Blue Moment, explains the artist, doesn’t come each day when the sun retires to her bower. It’s only on the rarest evenings when the heavens are clear and the climate is just right. The instant is dependent about a thousand people in their offices and houses, on their fickle choice to switch the fluorescent lights on or keep them off. It only lasts for a minute or so before the urban landscape returns to itself and the blazing sapphire dims to black.

Although he does indeed have quite the love affair with Hong Kong, Jacquet-Lagreze can’t help but feel that he’s in another world entirely when the city turns blue. Says the photographer, “the hue transports me in a dream-like atmosphere,” and it holds him there for only a breath, disintegrating like a puff of smoke seconds after it appears.

Blue Lotus Gallery will host the book launch and exhibition of The Blue Moment next month.

All images © Romain Jacquet-Lagreze

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