Photography exhibition | Documenting the city’s rainy days and floods

Choi Vun Tim

All that Macau-born photographer Choi Vun Tim ever wanted was to take pictures from a different angle – something that would stand out and make a difference.
He remembered a Hong Kong photographer who used to take pictures of sunny days, after heavy rain. He thought of doing the opposite: photograph Macau when rainstorms flooded the city, particularly within the Northern district areas.
But taking pictures of rain falling in empty streets wasn’t really what he was aiming for. It’s the relationship between Macau’s people and all those flooded streets that he managed to capture in his pictures, taken between 1974 and 1982, which are now on display at the Macau Museum of Art (MAM).
The exhibition “Heavy Rain and Floods – Photographs of Macao by Choi Vun Tim” was inaugurated on Friday at MAM and will remain until November 8.
The Times spoke with the photographer ahead of the exhibition’s opening on Friday. Mr Choi recalled that during the 70s and 80s, people would not stop working or walking through the streets even during floods or heavy rain.
He wanted to capture those small and simple moments: of children playing in the water, or of workers still carrying tofu containers although shops and restaurants were closed.
“If I just took pictures of empty streets with nobody there, the pictures wouldn’t be that nice. It’s not so attractive. When all the people are walking down the street and they even play a bit with the water, that’s when I would try to capture the moment,” he said.
Photographing cloudy and rainy days back then was not only challenging in terms of capturing the right moment, but were also tough in terms of technical matters. To document heavy rain, photographers had to carefully protect cameras and other material while walking down flooded streets.
Most of the pictures on display were taken within some of the most affected areas: Travessa do Patane; Avenida Almirante Lacerda; and the San Kio neighborhood.
Very few vehicles could be seen along Macau’s roads, while residents struggled through the floods.
“People would not stop working during floods. It didn’t surprise me, because back then the government was not so rich and people had no money. So they wanted to continue with their lives, and work. There’s a big difference compared to today. What could you do? You had to work and make money back then,” he added.
Mr Choi said that if he took up the exact same challenge now, photos of Macau under rainy skies would look very different.
“If I would go to Macau’s streets during rainstorms and take pictures, it wouldn’t look the same. Nobody would be doing the same things. Absolutely. Because now people are more afraid to walk in flooded streets and also they are mostly driving,” he recalled.
Mr Choi said he is particularly curious to see whether the people who are actually portrayed in the pictures would see the exhibition and recognize themselves.
“These pictures are 30 or 40 years old. Some of these people portrayed might still be alive. They will probably be pleased to show the pictures to their children,” he added.
Mr Choi started studying photography in 1968 after he relocated to Hong Kong as a teenager for work. He studied at the Chinese YMCA Photographic Society Hong Kong and the Chinese Photographic Association in Hong Kong. In 1986, he immigrated to Canada where he spent almost 30 years. The photographer now shuttles between Hong Kong and Macau.
The exhibition will be on display until November 8 and is free of charge.