John Thomson’s “Fort Zeelandia” from 1871 opens the exhibition “Eye of the Times—Centennial Images of Taiwan.” (Photos courtesy of Taipei Fine Arts Museum)
By June Tsai
Taiwan has changed so much in the last century that it is difficult to imagine what things were like in the past—before skyscrapers and cars came to dominate the landscape, and everyone started wearing western-style clothing. An exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, however, is bringing the nation’s past vividly to life.
“Eye of the Times—Centennial Images of Taiwan,” which runs until June 26, offers glimpses of Taiwanese society and culture over the last 140 years through the lens of the camera, according to curators Chuan Ling and Chang Tsang-sang, both renowned photographers themselves.
The exhibition, they added, illuminates how social and artistic changes are deeply intertwined.
A total of 247 pictures by 114 photographers are being shown. The majority of the photos are arranged chronologically, with four special rooms dedicated to specific topics: Orchid Island, mental imagery, fine art photography and portraits. The theme rooms allow visitors to appreciate the diversity in style and content of Taiwanese photography, the curators said.
According to Chuan, the pictures as a whole illustrate the three major purposes of photography—to record, re-create and assist in seeing.
“The ability to represent things precisely is almost the main reason for photography to exist,” he said.
In the earliest batch of images, Scottish photographer John Thomson (1837-1921) recorded what he saw in today’s Tainan and Kaohsiung back in 1871, about three decades after the invention of photography.
The 22 images, reproduced from original glass plate negatives now part of a private collection, depict people in their native environments, and are notable for their historical value.
Other pictures of Taiwan from the time when it was still under the control of the Qing dynasty include those of missionary George Leslie Mackay (1844-1901). One shows Mackay as a teacher, while another shows him as a dentist, in the process of helping the natives pull out rotten teeth.
Some pictures capture Taiwan in a state of transformation in the 1890s. “Xichang Street, Wanhua,” for example, shows some men dressed in Han Chinese costume and wearing braids, as required by the Qing court, and others sporting a short haircut and Western-style clothing, following the example of their Japanese colonizers.
Japanese anthropologist Ryuzo Torii (1872-1953) is credited for one of the most important collections from the Japanese colonial era (1895-1945). On display are a dozen photos he took of Taiwan’s indigenous tribes. They are on loan from Taipei’s Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines, which owns 248 of the more than 800 originals by Torii.
These pictures, taken between 1896 and 1900, were used to assist anthropological studies and were meant to be comprehensive, Chuan said.
“The images contain important information on Taiwan’s indigenous peoples, and from their clothes and houses we are able to see the increasing influence Han Chinese had on the native inhabitants of Taiwan,” he said.
Curators suggested that these pictures can be compared with later ones, offering viewers the opportunity to ponder the different intentions of the photographers in representing their subjects.
For example, images in the Orchid Island gallery that were taken by local photographers in the last three decades show the Tao tribe in their natural and cultural surroundings rather than an object for study.
The pictures of Lin Chao (1881-1953) are also on display. A military photographer, Lin helped train the first generation of Taiwanese photographers and founded Taiwan’s longest-running photo studio.
Between 1905 and 1910, he was the in-house photographer for the Lin family, a prominent clan in the Wufeng district in central Taiwan during the Japanese era. The family representative, Lin Hsien-tang, was a well-respected democracy advocate and cultural reformer, and many of the cultural and political activities he took part in were faithfully recorded by Lin Chao.
The original glass-plate negatives were discovered by accident only in 1985, when historians were going through the family mansion, according to Chuan.
For Chang, the Lin series helps form a better picture of the social and cultural climate at the time. “Lin Hsien-tang’s generosity and Lin Chao’s documentary ambition are evident in these pictures,” Chang said, noting that at a time when photography was expensive, maids and servants were included in the family portraits.
According to Chuan, postwar photography in Taiwan evolved to combine documentary and aesthetic functions of the modern invention. Important cameramen include the famous triad of Taiwan’s pioneering documentary photographers Teng Nan-guang (1907-1971), Chang Tsai (1916-1994) and Lee Ming-tiao (1922- ), as well as the next generation of practitioners, who even more consciously incorporated social concerns into their work. Representatives of the latter group include Juan I-jong, who was also an influential writer on photography, and Chang Chao-tang, winner of the Taiwan National Cultural Award in 2011.
Parallel to these artists are those who did salon work, beginning with Lang Ching-shan (1892-1995). Salon photography, which emphasizes on style more than on content, was the main interest of Taiwan’s amateur photographers.
Yet both groups are given space at the exhibition. The reason, Chuan said, “is to do justice to a good photographer, who cannot be pinned down easily and who has more things up his sleeve than we can easily appreciate.”
During the three decades since the 1980s, the turmoil of social and political changes offered inspiring themes for modern photographers, whose works are also amply represented at the exhibit. Their photos, which record important events, are examples of photographers’ engagement with society.
Both curators observed how more recent pieces have incorporated digital technology and multimedia art. Authors, as they can be called, seem to have turned toward individual expression with only a secondary emphasis on society, they said.
Of note for the show are the printed texts on the wall by renowned Taiwanese writers, intended to prepare viewers for each section of the exhibition they are entering. Chuan said the arrangement was inspired by “The Family of Man,” an exhibition created by American photographer Edward Steichen for the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1955. The exhibit has since been called “the greatest photographic enterprise ever undertaken.”
But unlike “The Family of Man,” which delivers a strong message for the universality of peace but downplays differences among mankind, the Taiwanese exhibition does not try to reconcile differences in a unified moral message.
According to the curators, the show is not meant to provide a comprehensive view of Taiwanese photography. Rather, the works allow viewers to see how photographers with their unique aesthetics look at Taiwan’s people, land and society, they said.
“The exhibition can probably serve as a ‘pre-text’ for Taiwan’s photographic history,” Chuan said, adding he hoped the show to start the base for the long overdue work of collecting images related to the country and constructing a history of photography in Taiwan.
This article first appeared in online Taiwan Today May 13, 2011.
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