I had known Hin-Io Chan for only a year yet this was the second time for me to act as curator for his exhibition within these few months. I wondered if it was fate. I felt I was even luckier this time because I was able go to his home to select photographs personally. I saw that there was a huge computer in the centre which was not quite in proportion to the size of the house. We sat in front of its screen and studied Chan’s work carefully along with his introduction and we enjoyed a nice cup of tea while selecting his works.

Queries had always entered my mind whenever I saw his works. In the past, I would ask him why we, as long-term residents of Macau, had never seen similar kinds of scenes or such views of buildings before. Generously, he would always give us a detailed report about each one; for instance, that this one was a bird’s-eye shot taken from the roof of a nearby high rise building or that group of photographs was the result of circling round Macau a few times in his rented boat.

It was more surprising this time that even though the shots were taken exactly at the same place as others, his lens actually had the penetrating power of unveiling intrinsic truth to the spectators one by one. Was it because there was a magic wand installed in his lens? Of course not! It was the tranquillity and passion inside the photographer. These two elements, though they seemed to be incompatible, told us, through these pictures, that they are good friends.

When the night came, the Ruins of St. Paul and the Monte Forte were outlined by a sacred orange yellow and stood far opposite from each other in this piece of grayish- blue modern buildings; the sunset placed a red veil over the Dom Pedro V Theatre; the shadows of the buildings gradually lengthened. Looking intently for a while, classical music could be heard drawing nearer and nearer; a dog contentedly basked in the sun beside the mottled old wall; the church blessed the lovers who were kissing under its door; the pious old lady offered incense at the Sam Kai Vui Kun Temple. If there had not been tranquility in mind, who would have noticed these inconspicuous scenes and moments in such a hectic city. His work vividly reflected the core value of the historic city of Macau as a world cultural heritage – Snippets of Life.

The proud history of Macau was built brick by brick by its people over many years and what moved the people was the mellowness of life that penetrated piece by piece over this tiny morsel of land and nourished these age-old buildings. The renowned works of Hin-Io Chan made us realize that he really lived and breathed along with this city. Regardless of whether they were scenery or portraits, under his lens, they all revealed their emotions of laughter, anger, sorrow or happiness.

Picking a location or a theme, he could immediately discover a number of related pictures and tell you in amazing detail as to when, where and how the picture was taken and some interesting stories of what happened at that time and simultaneously, he would progress from one picture to another file where more pictures were saved. He started to speak faster and faster, his voice became louder and louder and his eyes would flash with delight. It was as if we were being hypnotized and being brought magically to another photographic scene.

We sat, still in front of the computer, for hours and both our vision and soul enjoyed this grand banquet. As Bach’s work played in the living room and we were soothed by it, our high spirits became gently mellowed. The fragrance of mushroom soup wafted from the kitchen, our lips savoured the strong tea. I wished I could frame this moment and entitle it ‘Global stability, long term tranquility’.