The Castle Road Years, 1982–1991

 In 1982, Lee Ka-sing and Holly Lee relocated their studio to 3 Castle Road, a mezzanine-level space on the lower stretch of Castle Road where it meets Caine Road in Hong Kong’s Mid-Levels district. Before their arrival, the premises had served as an extension of the storage space for the shop below. The building stood beside Kom Tong Hall—today the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Museum (孫中山紀念館)—which at the time housed a Mormon church.

The studio at 3 Castle Road remained their base from 1982 to 1991, a nine-year period that marked one of the most productive and influential chapters of their professional lives. It followed three earlier studios—at Lan Kwai Fong, Wyndham Street, and another address on upper Castle Road—and preceded their final Hong Kong studio at 5 Prince Terrace. Looking back, the Castle Road years can be seen as the period in which both artists reached full maturity in their respective practices, working under one roof while pursuing increasingly distinct creative directions.

For Holly Lee, these were years of remarkable professional achievement. From the Castle Road studio she produced many of her best-known commissioned works, including the poster photography for A Better Tomorrow (英雄本色), album covers for Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui, and major advertising campaigns such as Puma. The studio also witnessed the beginning of the relationship between advertising executive Mike Chu (朱家鼎) and actress Cherie Chung (鍾楚紅). Chung was the model for the Puma campaign handled by Chu’s advertising company, and the overnight photography sessions took place in this studio.

The mid-1980s were equally formative for Lee Ka-sing. During this period he developed the highly personal visual language that would become his signature approach to commissioned photography. Drawing upon his backgrounds in graphic design and poetry, he introduced an experimental, freehand sensibility into commercial photography. As he later reflected, photography became a way of combining his interests in illustration and installation without relying on traditional drawing skills. Together, the work produced by Ka-sing and Holly established the studio as one of the most inventive photography practices in Hong Kong, recognized for its willingness to challenge conventional approaches to assignment work.

Beginning in 1985, Ka-sing contributed a monthly column to Photo Pictorial, followed by regular writings for Photo Art, Bok Yit, Sing Tao Weekly, and other publications. The Castle Road years became an important vehicle for reflecting upon photography. The process of writing became a means of organizing ideas, observations, and readings accumulated through practice. In retrospect, these years of sustained reflection helped lay the intellectual foundation for DISLOCATION (女那禾多), the influential independent publication later co-founded with Lau Ching-ping during the duo’s subsequent years at 5 Prince Terrace.

When Ka-sing and Holly first occupied the Castle Road premises, the renovation was minimal. The most significant alteration was the construction of a large curved wall that blocked the front windows and transformed the space into a flexible photographic environment. Layers of latex paint were repeatedly applied and replaced according to the needs of individual assignments. With no natural light entering the studio, it became a twenty-four-hour workplace, continuously adapting to new projects.

Around 1987 or 1988, Lee met architect and designer Karl Shiu, who had recently returned to Hong Kong from the United States. In exchange for photographing his design office, Shiu proposed a redesign of the Castle Road studio. The resulting intervention transformed the office portion of the premises while leaving the photographic workspace largely intact. Working within a compact split-level structure and a modest budget from a contractor, Shiu created a highly efficient environment that dramatically improved the use of space. For a brief period, it may have been one of the most distinctive photography studios in Hong Kong.

The redesigned studio, however, would be used for only a few years. Despite repeated discussions, the property owner was never willing to sell the premises. In 1991, an opportunity arose to acquire a much smaller ground-floor space at 5 Prince Terrace. Ka-sing and Holly had previously lived on Prince Terrace in the early 1980s, where their daughter Iris was born. The neighbourhood remained close to their hearts, and the chance to establish a permanent studio in the area proved irresistible.

The new studio opened onto a large front terrace. Following extensive renovations, a window in the front wall was transformed into the main entrance, fundamentally reshaping the space. What had once been a side-entry residential apartment became a storefront-style premises. It was here that many important projects took shape, contributing significantly to the development and preservation of contemporary photography in Hong Kong.

Today, looking back, the move in 1991 from the beautifully designed Castle Road studio to a smaller space marked the beginning of a new chapter. During this period, Ka-sing reached the peak of his professional career, with assignments pouring in for his signature approach to commissioned photography. The revenue from these assignments enabled the Lees to support and advance photography-related projects and the broader photographic arts community. These initiatives included DISLOCATION publishing, the OP Print Program, exhibition projects, and monthly photographers’ meetings. The new studio also became a gathering point and gateway for photo-based artists visiting Hong Kong.

At the same time, Holly gradually stepped away from commissioned work due to health issues. After her recovery, she devoted more attention to her personal artistic practice. The Princess Terrace studio remained a landmark within Hong Kong’s contemporary photography scene, and after the Lees relocated to Toronto, the former studio was transformed into Hong Kong’s first photography gallery—the OP fotogallery—with additional funding support from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.

In 1997, six years after moving to the Prince Terrace studio, the Lees decided to relocate to Canada, at a moment when both their professional careers and artistic reputations were flourishing. Like the move six years earlier, the relocation now appears less an ending than a transition—a step toward another phase in an ever-evolving journey.

In this issue of ARCHIVE, we reproduce photographs documenting the redesigned 3 Castle Road studio. Some of these images have never appeared in print before, while some of the original transparencies used for publication have since been lost. We also reprint a selection of Lee Ka-sing’s writings from his Photo Pictorial column, including his account of photographing Karl Shiu’s design office.