NATIONAL CENTER OF PHOTOGRAPHY AND IMAGES

The Ambience of Life

The Ambience of Life

Inspired and influenced by realist photographers Deng Nan-Guang and Lee Tiao-Lun, Lee Ti-Chin documented everyday life with his photography, finding joy in observing, discovering, collecting, and creating art. The streets he walked and the streetscapes he photographed became keys to unlocking memories of the past, unfurling realist scenes in boundless time.Lee captured quotidian moments in Taipei in the early days, such as innocent children and random encounters in alleyways. He carefully framed the scenes, adjusted the aperture and shutter speed, and patiently waited for the tiny theater in the frame to put on the desired scene before taking his picture. Behind each shot is a long wait for the photographer. Decades later, when we review these realist scenes from boundless time, we can still perceive the candidness brewed over time and the air of life sealed in the images.

Realistic Visage

Realistic Visage

Through the countryside and the city, the photographer documented the visage of people and the time with piles of film rolls. These simple and candid portraits depict people’s living situations at the time, and guide the spectators to revisit the bygone days. The faces in the portraits naturally express inner feelings. Through photography, these past moments are frozen in the images permanently. The spectators are able to interpret or conjecture the stories of the people through their facial expressions, wrinkles, and other signs. The once vivid faces might have become blurry as time passes, but the feelings and emotions delivered through the photographer’s photos are lastingly　preserved in the images.

Entering Modernity

Entering Modernity

Drawing inspiration from everyday life, Lee Ti-Chin created a series of photographic works featuring Taipei City. These images witness the evolution of the city, from the Chunghwa Mall in Ximending in the early days to Hejiang Street surrounded by rice paddies. These images, now only existing in memory, bear witness to the city's development. As high-rise buildings sprouted from the fields, Lee captured the different aspects of "the modern" with his photographic language.From taking snapshots of fleeting moments to trying out compositions with forms constructed from dots, lines, and planes, Lee photographed the changing modern cityscape and its trendy signs. Through his photography, he documented the disappearing fields as well as the evolving scenes of the reinvented city.

State of Heart-Images

State of Heart-Images

“Heart-image photography” is a distinctive way to compose photographic narratives by expressing feelings through scenes and conveying meanings with objects. Using scenes and objects in still lifes, the photographer extracts the signs of difference embedded in the images to derive multiple meanings. This photographic approach, posited between figurative and abstract expressions, replaces realism with lyricism to visualize the photographer's subjective emotions. It is a photographic style uniquely developed in the Taiwanese photographic world.In Lee Ti-Chin's heart-image photography, he took pictures of reality through a subjective point of view, complemented by visual vocabularies such as plastic form, light and shadow, color, and line. He created his own framing of scenes and produces the idiosyncratic atmosphere that permeates the images. Through this approach, he expressed his feelings evoked and echoed by the scenes. The photographer's state of mind is thereby projected towards the spectator through his pictures, and the spectator can follow potential traces in the images to further dig into and perceive them. Consequently, the interpretive space of the photographic works can continue to expand through imagination.

Hometown under the Jiali Mountain

Hometown under the Jiali Mountain

Farmers labor with their heads bowed, they gaze upon Jiali Mountain when lifting their head, the source of irrigation for the Jhonggang River and Houlong River. Jiali Mountain nurtures Miaoli and the Hakka people who have found homes here. Chiu De-Yun, raised in a multigenerational farming family, possessed a down-to-earth character that drove him to capture, through a realistic lens, the familiar farming tasks, children, and local traditions of his hometown. The vibrant life beneath Jiali Mountain, presented in his imagery through stark black-and-white tones, vividly and powerfully conveys human nature in realist photography.

Hard Neck, Hard Work

Hard Neck, Hard Work

In Hakka language, the term “Shuifuteu-wearing folks” refers to people working in the fields. However, “Shuifuteu” also implies poverty and shabbiness. Chiu De-Yun captured images of small and large farms in Miaoli with his cameras, portraying the farmers, who were often referred to as wearers of “Shuifuteu.” Sharing a similar upbringing and background with his subjects, Chiu shortened the emotional and spatial gap between himself and those he photographed. He took pride in encapsulating the ethos of frugality, self-sufficiency, and hard work embodied by those in “Shuifuteu.” During the chilly days of early spring, he employed his lenses to document diligent farmers toiling in the fields, as well as laborers at fishing ports and construction sites, illustrating the exertion and sweat of their labor. The photographer's presence was a testament to standing side by side with these laborers, enduring the scorching sun and chilling winds, with the intent of conveying their struggle and strength through his imagery.

Revisiting the Rural Villages

Revisiting the Rural Villages

In the 1990s, the industrial workforce in Miaoli County had significantly exceeded the agricultural workforce, shedding the agricultural identity of the photographer’s hometown and transforming it into an industrialized area. The longstanding policy of “supporting industries through agriculture" brought substantial economic growth to Taiwan. However, the oversight of agricultural policies resulted in the exodus of the younger generation, leaving behind an aging population and abandoned farmlands. The remaining people still cultivating the fields were farmers who have dedicated their blood and sweat to the land throughout their lives.In 1991, following the establishment of the “Hard-Neck Photography Group,” Chiu De-Yun once again took up his cameras and ventured to Miaoli to capture its local culture and scenery. During his trips, he observed that the rural areas he had visited in his youth were deteriorating. The diligent farmers he had photographed back then were now elders living alone in the declining countryside. This motivated Chiu to intensify his photographic documentation of the fallow fields in Miaoli, the shift towards mechanized farming, the depopulation of rural areas, and the profound transformations in the landscape following the fast construction of highways and expressways.

The Warmth of Traces

The Warmth of Traces

Agricultural tools take part in the daily work and life of farmers. They shape a culture by gradually evolving through life experiences and adapting to the local environment. Weathered by wind and sun, these tools bear unique marks and a tactile warmth. Although indispensable, they are often the first to be abandoned as their owners fade away.In 1993, while documenting the dilapidated rural areas and elders left behind, Chiu De-Yun discovered many agricultural tools and daily utensils forgotten in old farmhouses. The idea of using objects to represent people surged in his mind. The projectWind Blows and Sun Shinesseries spanned four years, capturing over a hundred daily utensils. Chiu didn't arrange these items for his shooting; instead, he made simple photographic records of them in their original environment. These items, forgotten or abandoned by their owners, still retained traces of warmth. Their wear and tear is subtly connected to the labor and life shared with their former owners, and times they had for each other.