Lois in Hong Kong

My colleague, Professor Jia TAN, and I took Lois out to Tai Mei Tuk on a lovely Saturday in early March. It was a wonderful experience. Jia was driving along and then Lois said, "That is a beautiful tree. I'd like to make a picture."

So we stopped, Lois took out her equipment from the trunk of the car and we walked along the road back to some big banyan trees by the road side, in front of some village houses. It took Lois about 30 minutes to set everything up. Then she invited us to look at the image on her camera underneath the focusing cloth.

It was like magic. The tree right before our eyes was transformed. It appeared so majestic on the viewing glass, even when it was upside down. It was amazing to see through the photographer's eye. An ordinary tree all of a sudden acquires such a beautiful form and so many stories.

It was a great privilege to see the photographer at work. Lois described what she was doing as "making a picture." When she was working, the photographer seemed oblivious to everything else. It was also interesting that she insisted on carrying the rather unwieldy banquet camera herself. Tan and I helped carry some of her lenses and other items, but the banquet camera was the heaviest and hard to manoeuvre when we were going uphill around the reservoir.

I am in awe to think that Lois has carried this camera to many places around the world, including up to one of the shoulders of the giant Buddha in Leshan, Sichuan.

Professor Max Tang

Dean of the Faculty of Arts, CUHK