In September 1946 the Hanyang, a passenger-cargo steamship, was voyaging down the China coast, southbound from Tientsin (Tianjin) to the colony of Hong Kong. On board was the photographer Hedda Morrison. She had recently departed from Peking, her home for the previous thirteen years. On 21 September, beneath Hong Kong Island’s craggy peaks, the Hanyang moored in Victoria Harbour. Enriched by her experiences in China, buoyed by her recent marriage, Hedda Morrison disembarked. (Alastair had travelled on ahead of her, by military aircraft.)   During her time in China Hedda had refined her documentary photography in all its technical, visual and personal aspects. She had gained a deep interest in recording the everyday lives of communities, and an easy affinity – and rapport – with Chinese people.

The rhythmic swaying of the woman using a stern oar can almost be felt in this image, taken from very close up.

Above all, she had mastered the primary need of all good photographers:
a probing eye for compelling subjects and detail, and a strong feel for light and composition. Thus equipped, she set out to explore Hong Kong.

Relieved to leave the hardships of the war years in Peking, freed financially through her marriage to Alastair Morrison to photograph as she wished, and fascinated by her new home, Hedda Morrison opened herself to Hong Kong and its people. Week after week she roamed around, capturing its patterns of life. When she was there Hong Kong still had its old feel and traditions – with colonial precincts, tenement streets, fresh produce markets, hawkers, fisher folk and farmers. Yet, within years, much of what she witnessed in 1946 – 47 would be swept aside.
 
The documentary value of her photographs, perhaps not entirely clear even to herself at the time, was first indicated by their publication in the government’s Annual Report on Hong Kong for the Year 1946 – a mirror to immediate postwar Hong Kong. It was this document that, in 1995, started Edward Stokes on his
search for the photographs now seen on this website. (See Story of the Project.)      
 
Hedda and Alastair Morrison’s time in Hong Kong was fleeting, of less than six months duration – and, with Alastair unable to find satisfactory employment there,
in March 1947 the couple sailed for England. When she left Hong Kong Hedda had the Annual Report packed in her luggage. ‘She was very pleased to see it published’, Alastair recalls. ‘It was a nice selection of photos and people were
very pleased with it.’
 
 
Hedda Morrison’s Hong Kong, Photographs and Impressions 1946 – 47.
Edward Stokes, Hong Kong University Press, 2005.