1950s Central

Sat, 01/10/2015 - 13:14

Read the story behind this photo at: http://gwulo.com/node/22956

Date picture taken
1953

Comments

I was copywriting for quite a number of watch brands when I first joined the advertising field in late 1970s. Cyma was phonetically translated in Chinese as 司馬表. Clock or watch faces if unreal were set at Ten Past Ten as a standard graphic design rule. So Five Past Ten shouldn't be the case. But there's another proof :  the reflection of sunlight from the back windows and the lower part of the car bodies indicate that the sun was shining from a lower angle from the East, so not noontime yet. In the mid 1980s, I was working at the Publishing Division of GIS (Government Information Services Department) which was located at Baskerville House 樂成行 at No. 13 Duddell Street, the deep far end right-hand side near the Old Gas Lamp Steps and we could also enter & exit through Ice House Street. At the western junction of Duddell Street & Queen's Road Central, it was where the office of 攝影畫報(Photo Pictorial Magazine, a very popular Chinese photo journal founded in 1964 ) was located. Can't remember the name of the building, No. 4 re-numbered as No.10 Queen's Road Central was called Kai Ming Hong from old maps. I went up there & bought almost a complete set of its back issues and some 1950s pioneer versions of the magazine under different titles before the building was demolished when I first fell in love with photography. The magazine acted as a platform of interflow and education tool on photography for local & oversea Chinese amateur photographers at that time. Most of the general public including me in HK was still very poor in the 1950-70s. I could only buy my first camera after graduation from HKU in late 1970s.