Lin Chuan-tsu has long devoted to the documentary of local customs, the improvement of photography technique, and the arrangement of artistic conceptions. With portraits as his major creative genre, Lin often placed the figure at the center of the picture to magnify the dignity of the person being photographed. He was also good at capturing simple and sincere expressions as well as subtle dynamics of the subjects between movement and stillness.
Tones and composition elements are equally emphasized in his creative process. In Sun Drying of Grain, most of the layout is set in warm tone while the colors of golden spikes of rice and bamboo hats are highly saturated. With the temple as the background, a line of people carrying a religious sedan chair on the right highlights the piety of the people and the simple folk beliefs of the agricultural society. This arrangement also enriches the different ways of movement and interaction of the figures in the image.
Throughout his thirty years of photography career, Lin Chuan-tsu has shifted from the salon style that pays attention to layouts and artistic concepts to photojournalism and realism that focus on social life. His diverse images of people’s life and rural sentiments are an important testimony to the evolution of the photography trend in Taiwan and the social conditions of the times. Lin Chuan-tsu demonstrated his identity and care for the land and humanities of Taiwan with his zealous devotion and unique vision.
Due to the sudden death of Lin Chuan-tsu and the huge number of images left behind, it is naturally understandable that the preservation of his works or the research on his creation could not be perfected. In view of the conditions of image preservation, the color works in Taiwanese Photographer: Lin Chuan-tsu and those on display are mostly from the 1960s and 1970s while the color and image resolution are done as faithfully as possible to show Lin’s creative qualities at that time.
Sun Wei-xuan, “2021 Compilation and Research Project of Metadata in Photography.”