Hong Kong Photo Exhibition – Meet the Future

May 14 to 21, 2019. Rotunda, 1 Exchange Square, Central, Hong Kong.

These vulnerable children are our future and we can start to shape it by giving them the help they need – that’s the theme behind an upcoming Hong Kong photo exhibition.

Called “Meet the Future”, the pictures are by Richard Bowen. The former Hollywood cinematographer has spent the last 20 years working with his wife Jenny, setting up and establishing children’s charity OneSky. OneSky focuses on the early years of very vulnerable children – in particular, helping those without parents or whose contact with parents is limited.

OneSky is about to open a new centre in Hong Kong’s Sham Shui Po district this summer. The P.C. Lee OneSky Global Centre for Early Childhood Development will support local families and children providing Early Learning facilities and a Community Drop in Centre, impacting the lives of over 3,500 Hong Kong children every year.

Richard explained:

“I felt it was important, as the centre begins its work, to go beyond the statistics that move us to act and start ‘meeting’ the kids and seeing for ourselves the worlds they’re growing up in.

“In addition to serving disadvantaged children in Sham Shui Po, the centre will also be a training and advocacy hub that will allow us to impact the lives of disadvantaged children all over Asia. While OneSky’s work can be scaled up to meet this huge need, transformations only happen one child at a time and so that’s how OneSky works. Portraits of individual children was the obvious photographic project.”

Precious yet vulnerable

The colour photographs, taken by Richard over the past two years, show the spirit of precious, yet vulnerable, children in China, Vietnam, Myanmar, Mongolia, and Bangladesh.

Richard adds:

“Neglect, abandonment and extreme poverty are, of course, central to the story of many of these children’s lives. But I constantly met loving parents and caregivers forced to fully focus on the daily struggle to survive. Having seen OneSky working in similar environments, I know that there is so much that can be done, either directly with the children or indirectly through their parents, to ensure these children have the chance to reach their potential. These children are the future of our world – we cannot afford to write them off. ”

The exhibition is free and open to all.