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Photography

Juror's Statement

CHANG Kuo-Chih

In recent years, the Photography Category of the Da Dun Fine Arts Exhibition, organized by the Cultural Affairs Bureau of Taichung City
Government, has consistently achieved outstanding quality and wide recognition. During the evaluation process, the jury prioritized innovation and
quality, and reached a high level of consensus on the prize-winners. From my perspective, the completion of any artistic creation ultimately depends
on how each generation responds to and reflects on the emergence of new technologies and media, and how they use these to innovate aesthetic
styles and evoke emotional resonance. Therefore, contemporary photographic creation can no longer rely solely on digital tools. Beyond technique,
what matters is how artists infuse their work with cultural sensibility and emotional depth, so that technology transcends cold precision and conveys
warmth. When the mechanical operation is reduced in favor of emotional and cultural elevation, we begin to see new visual narratives emerging in
the younger generation’s work, which is an encouraging development.
First Prize-winning “The Place of Spiritual Awakening” by CHOU Shen-Fang was created on invitation to Dushan Village, Hangzhou, where the
artist was “inspired by the architecture of the Ming and Qing dynasties and the YE family genealogy archives viewed in Dushan Village, Hangzhou,
and struck by the uniquely ink-outlined, radiating ‘grave maps.’” To her, these time-worn images of death and memory became “silent chants,
swirling totems.” “Though the physical body passes and history blurs fact from fiction, a certain spirit appears to dwell within nature. Past scholars
expressed this through brush and ink; I, as a photographer, traverse foreign lands capturing images that move me in the moment. After careful
selection, I reconstruct my own landscape image map.” This clear creative concept, rooted in personal cultural experience and executed with mature
visual technique, stood out with overwhelming jury consensus and no dissent, securing the top prize.
Second Prize-winning “You Are Here, You Have Gone Away” by LI Shun-Mao evokes lyricism and tenderness. Beneath a blue sky, the quiet
beach is filled with poetic stillness. With a clean and powerful composition, the work whispers a melancholic reflection to a departed loved one or an
old friend — expressing the irreversibility of time and lingering remembrance. It is an intimate meditation on memory through imagery. Third Prize
went to “The Breach in the Silence Order” by LIN Chung-Yung. This grayscale image explores “The silent order of the universe holds countless
profound mysteries of nature, telling the primordial language of life.” With rich geometric rhythms, layered light and shadow, and a calm visual
structure, the series draws viewers in. From surface composition to underlying texture, every detail invites closer observation.
Award of Merit-winning “Iron Hull Reverie: Silent Memories in the Sound of Tides” by HSU Chun-Kuei captures the ghost-like wrecks of iron-
hulled ships stranded in the intertidal zone, lying silently in various orientations. In the artist’s nine-grid framing and composition, they appear in
a nearly soundless, breath-holding palette of gray and black — like a poet’s mournful elegy. Though belonging to documentary photography, the
work is nonetheless infused with a strong projection of subjective emotion. CHEN Zeno’s “The Iconography of Self Contemporary Portrait Thinking”
reminds me of the aesthetic of Benetton’s iconic “United Colors” campaigns, embracing postmodern themes of race, gender, and identity. Based
th
on non-representational portraits, CHEN reconstructs notions of gender, skin tone, nationality, and ethnic identity. After the development of 19 -
century photography from documentary style to pictorialism and narrative allegory, photography has long since moved beyond mere reproduction
and “representation.” The artist’s pursuit of self and cultural memory has led to the creation of a contemporary symbolic multi-panel “portrait” series,
which is equally captivating.
“Urban Fissures in the Mis-Seen” by LIAO Hsueh-Ju uses an urban gaze to capture material drawn from everyday impressions, then recombines
it with images observed in alleyways, emphasizing the visual gaps that most people overlook. The scenes carry a faint sense of melancholy
and oppression, echoing the artist’s own words about “unstable visual cues and afterimages.” This brings out the very essence of photographic
documentation as a way of seeing, where the artist’s vantage point and perspective on the surrounding world determine the imagery’s metaphors
or symbols. “Mazu’s Protection” by LI Shih-Hao captures the annual scene in the third lunar month when Mazu makes Her pilgrimage to bless the
people, this work carries the charm of classical pictorial photography. The oval-framed devotee in a blue cap and another illuminated by the glow
of a mobile phone camera form visual focal points alongside the golden brilliance of the palanquin. The presence of local elders also becomes a
central focus, rendered with precision and emotional resonance through the photographer’s lens.