In retrospect, the emergence of photography has not only rewritten humans’ perspectives but also influenced literary writing. Photos can be more than just a window that reflects reality but, at the same time, a space that houses creativity and imagination. Books, a symbol of humans’ thoughts and civilization, started showcasing a new relationship between images and texts, while perspectives of cameras also appeared in works of literature. A Gentle Breeze invites five contemporary writers to step into the viewing of images and the practice of exhibition from the perspective of literature. As texts and images complement each other, the abstract understanding of reading metamorphosizes into sensuous intuition. This process turns both viewing and reading into a unique experience and demonstrates possibilities of dialogue between the history of photography and its connection to memory. Texts, photography, and writing spark the existential meaning of symbiosis, guiding the reading of images towards changing aesthetics. This exhibition section can thus be interpreted as a resonance between photography and literature, revealing the subtlety of human nature and the true meaning of life through the act of writing.
Chung Wen-Yin holds a bachelor’s degree of Mass Communication from Tamkang University. She is a full-time writer, and she takes photographs and draws oil paintings as her self-cultivation of virtues. Chung Wen-Yin travels all over the world and has been the writer-in-residence in the National Tung-Hwa University, Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Santa Fe Art Institute, Literarisches Colloquium Berlin, and Hong Kong. She broadens and deepens her perspective through her travels.
Chung Wen-Yin has published many works, including collections of short stories, novels, and collections of essays. In 2011 she published her voluminous Island Trilogy of Decayed Lust, Decayed Land, and Decayed Life, a very notable accomplishment. Her recent works include a collection of essays Can’t Bear Not Seeing You, Missing You till the Sea Ends, and collection of short stories Gouges.
Her Farewell Not in 2021 was the winner of the Golden Medal of the Taiwan Literature Award.