Before “Every Time They Ask, We Say We’re Waiting” finds its final form🫧 Sharing some behind the scene along the journey
時光倒流到三年前，我用左當時由香港飛嚟英國嘅行李喼變成針孔相機去影由香港因為不同原因過左嚟英國需要尋求庇護嘅人。佢哋好多都係住喺政府比嘅臨時住所，依靠極小嘅subsidies度日，期間係唔可以工作，活喺無止境嘅等待。
除此之外，佢哋畫左佢哋記憶中香港嘅屋企，同埋每人用左即棄嘅菲林相機影左而家喺英國生活嘅日常。
🕐🕒🕕🕘🕛🕞🕡🕤🕧
🔗get your copy from the link in bio
This book documents the lives of young Hong Kong asylum seekers (aged 15–25) in the UK, who fled after the 2019–2020 protests. Too young to qualify for the British National (Overseas) visa, many were forced out of education and now live in temporary housing — waiting years, often alone, for asylum to be granted.
Photographer Deacon Lui transformed a suitcase into a pinhole camera to photograph their portraits and personal belongings. Alongside these images are the participants’ hand-drawn memories of home, written daily routines, and disposable camera photos of their new lives. Each person also responded to the same set of 10 questions — including: What does time mean to you? Who do you miss the most? If you could return to Hong Kong for a day, what would you do?
Together with text describing how they arrived in the UK and their reflections, the book explores loss, forced displacement, and memory—asking how we carry on when the home is taken away and becomes a place of no return.
This project was exhibited at Bermondsey Project Space, FORMAT24 Photo Festival, The RPS International Photography Exhibition 166, and Les Rencontres d’Arles 2025. Deacon Lui was also selected as one of 20 Carte Blanche Students by Paris Photo in 2023 for this project.
NEW BOOK NOW AVAILABLE🧳📚🕳️
🔗link in bio
This book documents the lives of young Hong Kong asylum seekers (aged 15–25) in the UK, who fled after the 2019–2020 protests. Too young to qualify for the British National (Overseas) visa, many were forced out of education and now live in temporary housing — waiting years, often alone, for asylum to be granted.
Photographer Deacon Lui transformed a suitcase into a pinhole camera to photograph their portraits and personal belongings. Alongside these images are the participants’ hand-drawn memories of home, written daily routines, and disposable camera photos of their new lives. Each person also responded to the same set of 10 questions — including: What does time mean to you? Who do you miss the most? If you could return to Hong Kong for a day, what would you do?
Together with text describing how they arrived in the UK and their reflections, the book explores loss, forced displacement, and memory—asking how we carry on when the home is taken away and becomes a place of no return.
This project was exhibited at Bermondsey Project Space, FORMAT24 Photo Festival, The RPS International Photography Exhibition 166, and Les Rencontres d’Arles 2025. Deacon Lui was also selected as one of 20 Carte Blanche Students by Paris Photo in 2023 for this project.
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First Edition, 50 copies Handmade and Signed By Deacon Lui, @lsb.co 1. Box Printing Size: 160mm × 115mm × 82mm with Hidden Magnet Paper: 120gsm Black card Printing: Digital Offset 2. Booklet Cover Printing x 10 Paper: 300 gsm Black card Printing: Letterpress with white ink 3. Booklet Printing x 10 Pages: 24pp Open Size: 2368mm x 105mm Finished Size: 148mm x 105mm Paper: 135 gsm Recycled Uncoated Paper Printing: Digital Offset Binding: Leporello Colour: 4C+4C 4. Book Info Printing Pages: 2pp Paper: Polar Bear White Heavy Card 400gsm Printing: Digital printing Colour: 1C + 1C Size: 148mm x 105mm Language: Traditional Chinese and English Publication Date: Aug, 2025
#paperarchives
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The @royalphotographicsociety IPE 166 curated by @billstarman opens yesterday at the @saatchi_gallery until 20th September in London!
I feel so grateful to be involved this year and also receive the Selector Spotlight recoginition from @nicola_shipley . Thank you for your kind words.
Thank you once again for the selection panel, @kalpeshlathigra@anne_alagbe@nicola_shipley@mikeyp1839@yuxingchen_
Last but not least, this project could not happen without the people who have been involved ——— 多謝你哋嘅信任 📨
#rps #ipe166 #saatchi_gallery
A Bigger Book Fair is back this weekend in London! 📸📚
My freshly hand-bound 2nd edition of “peace of the graveyard” and “every time they ask, we say we’re waiting” will be available @peckham24photo this weekend from the 15th–17th of May. Come say hi, browse the collection, and have some fun!
📍 Location: Unit 8, Copeland Park, 133 Copeland Rd, London SE15 3SN
🌃Friday 15 May: Launch Night (6pm – midnight)
🌄Saturday 16 May: 11am – 6pm
🌆Sunday 17 May: 11am – 6pm
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As it’s Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day, I thought I’d take a min to share some of my recent pinhole photos
city of strange🎮
#worldwidepinholephotographyday
excerpts from everytime they ask, we say we’re waiting
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我已經對時間失去感覺。
以前總覺得時間不夠用，
每天有很多事情要做。
但現在無事可做了，
時間已經變得不重要。
也許唯一讓我分辨出日子的時刻，
就是Sainsbury’s在星期天會提早關門。
除此之外，
每天都過得一樣，不再對未來有任何期盼。
I have lost my sense of time.
I used to feel urgency, as if time was running out
because there were so many things to do.
But now, time no longer matters to me
because there is nothing to do.
Maybe I can tell it’s Sunday
when I notice Sainsbury’s is closing earlier,
but other than that, every day feels the same.
I do not feel anything anymore.
//
Every Time They Ask, We Say We’re Waiting ——— is a project which began with a suitcase I carried from Hong Kong to the UK. I transformed this suitcase into a pinhole camera, and captured photos and personal belongings of Hong Kong asylum seekers.
New book link in bio🔗
excerpts from everytime they ask, we say we’re waiting
//
時間就像一條無限延長、卻無法加速觀看的 YouTube 影片，
而我們的存在，只是中間短短的一小段。
如果能回香港一天，
我會一大早跟爸爸去飲茶，隨便逛逛，
中午跟朋友吃車仔麵。
下午再約另一個朋友吃糖水，晚上去打冷，
最後宵夜一定要來一碗狗仔粉。
我很想念家人煮的飯，
那種味道，去哪裡都再也找不到。
即使曾經多麼討厭那個家，
我還是希望有一天能回去。
畢竟那是我長大的地方，是唯一屬於我的家。
Time feels like
an endlessly long YouTube video that I cannot fast-forward,
and our existence is just a brief moment in the middle of it.
If I could return to Hong Kong for just one day,
I would start my morning by having dim sum with my dad,
wander around for a bit,
and then meet up with friends for cart noodles.
In the afternoon, I would catch up with another friend over a bowl of sweet soup,
have Chiu Chow dishes for dinner,
and end the night with a bowl of ‘doggie’s noodles’ for a late-night snack.
I really miss my family’s home-cooked meals –
I can never find its taste anywhere else.
No matter how much I used to resent home,
I still hope to return one day.
Because no matter what, that was the place where I grew up,
the only place I felt like I belonged.
//
Every Time They Ask, We Say We’re Waiting ——— is a project which began with a suitcase I carried from Hong Kong to the UK. I transformed this suitcase into a pinhole camera, and captured photos and personal belongings of Hong Kong asylum seekers.
New book link in bio🔗
