Lin Chuan-tsu went to Lanyu to capture the life of the Tao people. In addition to shooting the important annual “flying fish festival”, a ceremony for the tribe to express gratitude for God’s gifting, his sense of mission for documentary and passion for photography also drove him to capture diverse themes and to arrange various compositions.
Lin did not hold on to the outsider’s curiosity or was not limited to superficial layouts. His attention was beyond the festival and the grandeur scene of the community. His photo making is sometimes humorous and sometimes warm, while the configuration of figures and setting is also quite ingenious. With his advanced skills of portrait photography, the photographed can maintain a natural expression whether he is facing the camera or not.
In Rice Powdering, the man in toil is placed in the foreground to highlight the theme. The light and shadow of the shoulders shift on the dark skin of the man, showing the muscular lines and earnest strength and beauty. The tribesmen sit on the ground along the thatched huts with some people watching and chatting. The scene presents the leisurely atmosphere of daily life, forming an interesting contrast to the hard-working figure in the picture. In addition, with the structure of the stone ground, the diagonal composition and the perspective effect make the depth-of-field more obvious and enriched.
Sun Wei-xuan, “2021 Compilation and Research Project of Metadata in Photography.”