Extremely Recalcitrant V

Archival inkjet print in wooden frame, engraving on plexiglass set of 2
59 x 43.5 x 6.3 cm (each).

Source: Hon. M. D. Irving Gass, C.M.G., Colonial Secretary in Hong Kong by R. White, vintage silver print, 16.8 x 12 cm, 1967.

Michael D. I. Gass was the Acting Governor of Hong Kong during the Hong Kong riots in 1967 and the mastermind behind the crackdown on the riots. Born in 1916, he was educated in a famous public school and later graduated from both Cambridge University and Oxford University. He began his career in the Colonial Administrative Service, and later joined the army during WWII. After the war, he returned to his diplomatic work and was posted to various places across Africa and the Pacific until his retirement in 1973.

The words "Extremely Recalcitrant" came from a comment by magistrate Enoch Light, describing the 14 Belilios schoolgirls who were charged for obstructing police officers or trespassing on school property during the 1967 riots in Hong Kong. The girls had been excluded from the court for being "unruly and disrespectful" (as reported in the South China Morning Post, Nov 18, 1967).

In the seminal book On Photography [1977], Susan Sontag also sees reality as "recalcitrant". She writes, "Photographs are a way of imprisoning reality, understood as recalcitrant, inacessible; of making it stand still."