Page 189 - 臺中市第二十六屆大墩美展專輯

ᙲᅂᗳ

Photography
Juror's Statement, Photography Category CHIU Kuo-Chun

Emerging victorious after a erce competition, the winning photography works of the 26th Da Dun Fine Arts Exhibition are impressive in many ways.
Other than Taiwan, the 313 entries received this year include works from Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Saint Lucia, and France, which
demonstrates that this photography competition has become an international and in uential art event. After in-depth discussions from di erent perspectives
and aspects, the ve judges, CHIAN Tsun-Hsiung, CHIEN Jung-Tai, SHEN Chao-Liang, LIN Tay-Jou, and I, nally shortlisted 27 works and selected ve Award of
Merit recipients and the top three winners.
A trend worth noting is that almost all award recipients or shortlisted works in this year's competition are sets of images, with very few single pictures
receiving recognition. One of the reasons for this may be the fact that artists increasingly tend to produce photographs in a systematic way, rather than taking
photographs casually or spontaneously, as was the custom in the past. Another and perhaps more possible reason is that in contemporary times, rarely can
one sole photo enable photographers to form a complete narrative as they intend. In other words, the transition from a single photograph to a set of images
as common practice seems to suggest that many photographers care not only about the visual presentation of an artwork but place more emphasis on
conveying their ideas.
Let us start from the First Prize winner, Longing. This series of images deals with the water crisis in Taiwan this year from the perspective of environmental
conservation. In terms of composition, some of these images present a large, panoramic view, whereas others turn to look at small details. Besides depicting
the outward appearance of the shooting locations, the inter-related visual symbols point to people's internal feelings of embarrassment in the face of such
damage to the environment.
Turning to the Second Prize winner, Discarded car recycling yard Ò Gorgeous turn, I must say that this work divided the jurors during discussions. Many
jurors thought that the main picture of the series should have presented the salient features of the site to suit the theme of a slaughterhouse (discarded car
recycling yard), instead of simply presenting car wrecks as if an accident had just occurred. However, when considering the latter half of the title, "gorgeous
turn", viewers can notice the sharp contrast between this car wreck and the accompanying pictures of neatly categorized car parts in orderly rows. One cannot
help but ponder on what kind of valuable "turn" the car wreck could make, and for whom. To go a step further, perhaps this series also reminds us not to
ignore every possibility, for everything is undergoing constant change.
The Third Prize winner, The spirit of the baseball, chronicles the training of a youth baseball team, revealing little-known tness and skill training processes.
Through the artist's close observation and ability to capture eeting moments, this work manages to convey intense emotions under the calmness of black-
and-white images.
As mentioned earlier, the top three winners, like many other shortlisted works, tend to employ the film editing technique of montage to hint at the
message they intend to convey through the connection and dialog between symbolic imagery. Probably due to the limitation of exhibition space, or
because participants have not yet thought about more possible ways to express through their works, the series of photographs submitted still have room for
improvement in terms of arrangement and variations. Hence, nding ways to allow exhibitors to arrange works more freely in a limited space and even use
installation methods to facilitate interactions between the images within a preorganized space may be a promising direction for future photography contests
of the Da Dun Fine Arts Exhibition.

189