2022

As a country that is often being "included out" or "outside the center of the world," Taiwan needs to consider the appropriateness when confronted by various Western theories, ideas, technologies, and other tangible objects or intangible concepts that are out of their social and cultural contexts.  

In the discussion of photography, we also have to face the theoretical aspect of "time lag" apart from the progression from the outside to the inside on the technical level. Despite the dawn of Taiwanese photography began as "being photographed" with little agency, the experiences and self-awareness of the cultural subjectivity of Taiwanese photography have gradually been acknowledged and emerged over time.

Following this inner logic, the exhibition "Whose Photobooks? Histories, Perspectives and Experiences from Taiwan '' at Bandung Photography Month aims to reflect on three themes: the idea of Taiwan, contemporary photography, and photobooks.

By juxtaposing the two axes of the history of Taiwanese photography and the history of Taiwan, we attempt to reconsider the social discursive formation behind the photographic practices in Taiwan, in order to rethink how western concepts such as photography, contemporary, and photobooks were used to generate local discourses in Taiwan. In other words, the idea of the "Taiwanese Photobook" must consciously confront the complex and intertwined social fields, rather than the modernist, artist-centered, "vacuum" aesthetics that once emerged in the West.

At the same time, the term "contemporary" also needs to be reexamined in consideration of its inherent ambiguity and oxymoronic divergence as a tense. In the context of art history, it broadly refers to the creative trend that emerged in the European and American art communities after World War II, which briefly coexisted with modern art, and generated new artistic models and characteristics in response to the ongoing student movement, the Stonewall Uprising, and the feminist and black movements.

In terms of the history of world photography, the term "contemporary photography" is generally used as a new category that gradually emerged after modernist photography and under the fertile ground of conceptual art's continuous cross-examination and reconstruction of art itself. However, if we shift our attention back to ourselves, what is the so-called "contemporary" Taiwan? If we follow the idea of "contemporary" developed in the European and American contexts and apply it to Taiwanese society and culture, it will almost certainly end up in the formal imitation that shows a lack of vitality, or the derivatives of the so-called "contemporary art", and falling into the double paradox of being included out by both Taiwan and the world.

Perhaps, there’s an alternative way to reconsider what actually “contemporary” and the “contemporariness” of Taiwanese photography is, which may lead us to open a new path of imagining the ontology of Taiwanese photography. Also, by rejecting misusing “contemporary” in terms of descriptive rhetoric, we could start to deliberate what actually refer to when we said “Taiwanese contemporary photography”.

Curator｜Chin-Wei Chang
Text｜Chin-Wei Chang

Special Thanks｜Lightbox Photo Library, Liang-Pin Tsao

Bandung Photography Month (Red raws center)

30 October - 16 November 2022 @Bandnug, Indonesia

In this curatorial conversation, Chin-Wei and Liang-Pin will indicate two paths to consider regarding the issue of Taiwanese history and the relationship between history and photobooks. The make of photobooks are never only related to the creativity of the photographer, or the aesthetic and thoughts of the artist itself in terms of art for art’s sake. On the contrary, the photobooks, I’ll claim, are always about the discursive formation constructed by the ongoing conversation between the social field, historical context, and photographer.

By overviewing the modern history of Taiwan, Chin-Wei tries to rethink and constellate history in the modern era from the perspective of a history of Taiwanese photography, which leads us to reimagine the unfamiliar connection between the western photographer who came to Taiwan (Formosa), photobooks they made and the untold context inside these books.

Liang-Pin will point out some key concepts to examine the problematic inside photobooks in different eras, and reclaim the interpretation of Taiwanese history from the perspective of the “Republic of China”.

Speaker｜Chin-Wei Chang, Liang-Pin Tsao
Time｜16.00 - 18.00. 5 November 2022
Venue｜Red raws center @Bandnug, Indonesia

交錯的視線－他者與我族眼中的台灣

在磨砂玻璃均勻抹上硅酸鈉、明膠與重鉻酸，靜待成膜，隨後將其置於光下，緩緩顯影。這是珂羅版（collotype）的製版方法，亦是151年約翰．湯姆生（John Thomson）為台灣留下首批影像時使用的印刷法。彼時，連同聖朱利安．愛德華士（St. Julian Hugh Edwards）、史溫侯（Robert Swinhoe）及李仙得（Charles William Le Gendre）等人，「台灣」在他者的凝視下逐漸成像，並隨後流轉於不同族裔的目光中，連同社會文化、政經脈絡，生成「形構」（formation），顯影出一種「被攝影」的「台灣攝影史」。

「交錯的視線——他者與我族眼中的台灣」試從過去由他者目光交織而成的台灣形象中，梳理其影像流變與背後的脈絡：以約翰．湯姆生為起點，在玻光流影間窺探百年前的台灣；隨歷史漂泊至日治，揭露蕃地影像中的視覺政體及殖民敘事；透過鄧南光、鄭桑溪、黃則修等人的攝影實踐，檢視戰後影像運動，以及逐漸生成的本土眼光；並且，來到現代，觀看身處動盪年代的台灣攝影師如何與時代對話，進行應時的影像創作。本次展覽以攝影書（photobook）為載體，濃縮並概述台灣攝影的古往今來。攝影家的作品向觀者展示過往時刻的此曾在，然而，影像揭露的視覺證據也許僅能述說仍有殘缺的過往記憶與脈絡。

在視覺元素之外，廣闊無垠但與攝影家高度互涉的田野與社會脈絡，是需投以關注才得以顯影的透明場域。而真正對影像及其與錯綜歷史交纏的社會文化式考察論述，不僅止於本次展出的創作型書籍，而是更需要，且必要以「台灣攝影史」為問題意識，回到按下快門時，鏡頭外不斷變動的社會場域，探問定影之前，更為重要的影像「生成」脈絡。除攝影書外，本展選入兩本研究型書籍便是意欲補足此脈絡，試圖向觀眾闡釋，影像外不可見（invisible）的社會文化場域，往往影響影像最終的樣貌。或者，更肯定的說，影像總是在某個特殊的語境或脈絡下，才得以誕生。張世倫與莊靈「關於攝影史的攝影史書寫」，正是帶領讀者回到影像生成的場域，使不可見變得「可見」（visible）。

而台灣攝影的開端者之一湯姆生，亦是攝影史上首位「旅行攝影」（travel photography）的影像實踐者。過去他行旅東亞各地，將其見聞與影像集結成冊，並搭上當時英國盛行的人類學風潮，出版眾多歐洲中心主義（eurocentrism）式的帝國凝視文集（遊記）。這些文集，在當代以批判性的角度詮釋時，向讀者展示，旅行從來不只是旅行。「旅」與「行」的之間，潛存眾多觀看的政治，以及影像之外的陰影。本展選書子題「開放之路（Open Roads）——迷途與追尋」挑選幾組特殊的「旅行攝影」，試圖展示現當代影像創作者對「旅行」一詞的特殊詮釋。這些作品不單是紀錄旅行本身，亦是從沿途地景回遞出社會文化場域的現況與想像；以動植物為引投射出攝影者的精神面貌；或甚至是在旅途中時常被忽略的一角，尋獲「旅行」的特殊身體經驗與時態。凡此種種，皆是旅行，同時也是旅與行，是在來到異地行旅的當下，感知並回應此一特殊的時空間狀態。

最後，我們邀請讀者一同考慮與旅行高度相關的環境與生態議題。從展場回到Lightbox，在15本與生態相關的攝影書中，創作者並非想傳遞單純／直白的呼籲，而是透過他們的洞見，幽微地表述現當代生態與地景、社會、人類、族群、動物的關係。生態環境問題並非與我們相距甚遠的議題，而是以隱匿的姿態，存於日常之間。這些攝影家並非將問題放大或複雜化，而是如助產士（maieutic）般，以影像言說，引出尋常中的危機，使影像成為隱喻，揭露人類與環境的互動樣態。

觀看未曾是單純讀取眼前的視覺訊息，而是眼腦連動的思覺運動，並在影像中生成詮釋與思考的動能。期以本展，啟動思想的脈輪，透過影像與文字，使歷史重新蘇生、使旅行成為旅－行、使生態靠近自身。

Curator｜張晉瑋、曹良賓
Text｜張晉瑋

Lightbox 攝影圖書室
2022/02/25 - 04/06 @Taipei, Taiwan