Life in a crazy beautiful and luxurious Hong Kong not everyone can afford. Because of this, some people have to live in illegal miniature little rooms, which are called "tombs" among themselves.
According to the commercial organization Society for Community Organization, about 200,000 Hong Kong residents are forced to survive in unsuitable conditions.
"Cells" are small rooms in which the representatives of the most underprivileged groups of the population live.
Here people of different sex and age live. There is one thing that unites them - none of them can afford such a dwelling in which one could at least stand in full growth.
Alas, the problems of 200,000 unfortunate people living in the "tombs" fade in the background of the splendor of luxurious life in Hong Kong. It's hard to imagine, but there are those who do not even know about the existence of "tombs," and if they can guess, they flatly refuse to believe that someone can live in such conditions.
All these photos are made for SoCo - a non-governmental organization fighting for political reforms that will help ensure a decent standard of living for all local people.
Residents of the "tombs" have to excel themselves, fitting out their "boxes".
Ah Tina have to live in a house with an area of 1.1 m2. Because of the inability to change something in life, a man has long lost his appetite, because he eats Ah Tin very infrequently.
Mr. Lyng is spending days and nights with a book in his hands. For all his life he had to change a lot of jobs. But now he is too old, and no one wants to take him to work. In order not to perish in the real world of poverty and poverty, Ljung prefers to spend time in literary reality.
"Although I am still alive, the walls of the coffin are already surrounding me on four sides," says one of the residents of the "tomb" of Hong Kong.
Sadly, there are no alternative housing options for unfortunate Hong Kongers.
Local authorities do not care about residents of the city, they can divide a room with a little more than 35 m2 into as many as 20 beds.
"Tombs" return to a brutal reality and remind that life in Hong Kong is not so cloudless. At least not for everyone ...
Over the past 10 years, the number of house-cages has decreased, but they have been replaced by something more terrible - sleeping places, which are a bed, enclosed by four walls.
"Tombs" are located close to each other, because of the privacy of their residents had to forget. Yes there is confidentiality, sleep in silence has become a luxury for them for a long time.
In his 60 years, Mr. Wong still boasts a black shock of hair. To pay an expensive lease, he has to work on a construction site every day. And in his spare time, Wong helps the homeless.
Such small rooms, in fact, are illegal buildings.
The inhabitants of this "cube" are Japanese. The father and son are quite tall, so it is very difficult for them to move around the low dwelling.
From their little room members of the Leung family made a whole apartment complex. Now it has a bedroom, a dining room and a kitchen.
Representatives of SoCo and other similar organizations help to fight for their rights to people living in these inhuman conditions.
"That day I came home and burst into tears," said Benny Lam after he had to photograph the miserable miniature dwellings of the poor in Hong Kong.
These houses, if they can be called so, are more like coffins. And their dimensions are slightly higher than the standard ones. Of course, the photographer was hard at such work. To observe such injustice, to see the suffering of innocent people who are below the poverty line and forced to move to the "cube", just not to live on the street, is very painful.
Hong Kong is an expensive city in which life is in full swing. There are many modern skyscrapers, shopping centers, boutiques, restaurants. But we must not forget that behind this glamorous facade lies the pain of 200 thousand people - of which 40 thousand are children - forced to huddle in cages with an area of less than 2 m2.
Because of overpopulation, prices in the real estate market jumped to the most expensive in the world. Increasing the rent of tens of thousands of people left without decent housing. To have at least some kind of roof over their heads, many agreed to move to more or less accessible "cubes", where the toilet, shower, kitchen, bedroom and dining room are connected in the same room.
Authorities create "tombs" illegally, dividing large rooms into cells in which the average person is even hard to stand. It is worth renting this "pleasure" about $ 250 a month.
The kitchen, combined with the toilet - typical for the "tombs" planning.
With his project "Trap", Lam would like to draw the public's attention to the fact that in some terribly difficult conditions some people have to survive, while most of the city is thriving and swimming in luxury.
"You can ask why we have to take care of people who do not belong to us in any way," says the author of the project. "But in fact all these poor people are part of our lives. They work as waiters, clerks, security guards, cleaners in shopping centers and on the streets. Our main difference is in housing. And improving their poor housing conditions is a matter of human dignity. "
Terrible, unfair and insulting, but people in Hong Kong have to fight even for such terrible housing.
Many of them are embarrassed to admit that they live in cages. But nevertheless, many opened the door to an unfamiliar photographer, hoping that his work will help draw the attention of the authorities to their pain, and someday the housing issue in Hong Kong will be decided. Benny Lam sincerely hopes that the photos, which clearly show that some places in the tombs are not enough even to fully stretch their legs, will make the more affluent members of society become imbued with the problems of the poor and solve all issues of income inequality.
Hong Kong is famous for its high standard of living. But to forget that behind all these signs, luxurious shopping centers and clubs, the lives of about 200 thousand people who are forced to live in "cubes" with an area of a little over a square meter are a crime.