Reflections on Our Airport

The leather sofas and floor of our old airport at Kai Tak used to be one of my favourite pre-exam revision spots when I was a child because of its free airconditioning. But times have changed. The airport has become the first place I go to whenever I want to meet my family or to get away from the hurly burly of my daily work. It is a spot where I conjure up images of my wife and children, wondering what they may be doing whilst I sit on one of those chair-sofas in coarse grey fabric eagerly awaiting those magical words from the PA system informing passengers of my long haul flight to start boarding that mid-night plane. It is also a spot where I would wait patiently for that bluish suitcase without a pull-up and push down metal handle to pass in front of the arrival luggage belt, leaning against other more contemporary-looking fabric suitcases an hour before midnight. All around me, I would then find others busy talking or pressing their fingers on the keyboard on their cell phones to text their friends or catching up on the latest news whilst they were away or lifting their own luggage on to their trolleys once they pass in front of them and then move off in hurried steps in the direction of one of the two customs check points. I would then be filled with an inexplicable but most unpleasant sense of having to do likewise if I want to continue to live here. However, since taking up photography, the airport has become a source of fun and exploration. 

Believe it or not, there is now actually a play area for children at our airport!

I like the color and the pattern.

Is there an airport without lights?

One without mobile connecting passenger bay bridges?

Or one without a radar?

What a door to find at such a modern airport?

You never know what kind of surprises may be in store for you when you look out,

There are so many different patterns!

I like the parallelograms, the triangles and the arcs and the play of light and shade.

You may find images of things on both sides of the windows. The boundaries between inside and outside, between reality and irreality, between clarity and ambiguity seem somehow to have melted. It's an uncanny feeling.

Windows within windows?

A Chinese bamboo scaffolding sitting above and below, a black worm barely touching the end groove of an East China tiled roof being watched by a pair of curious eyes on the left?

Broken arches?

More broken arches, but this time broken by the floor tiles!

A ceiling all set for rushing out of the window?

A cloud being caught by window frames?

Light and shadows upon more light and shadows and triangles upon more triangles with weaker
and stronger lines.

Intricate patterns of light at the roof radiating from close to the bottom left to the top right.

More light flooding in from one end of the airport.

A quiet corner of the airport.

The sun has come in. It is working its magic upon the most ordinary looking handrails and pillars.

It is working on the floor, creating what looks like ripples on the top left and drawing patterns on its surface, creating streams.

Some patterns in the darker floors of the airport.

I like the shadows of passing figures on the floor

Three passing figures on the reflective surface of the floor caught by the arc.

I better call up my pal!

What are you trying to tell me? How many time have I told you never to do that again! Uggh...

Before long, I was in the clouds. I mean literally!

And more clouds.

Finally, I was on the plane. All the way to Tsingtao, home of my favourite beer!