Becoming Image: New Horizons of Taiwanese Photography (with post-screening discussion)
Cheng Ting Ting
Tsao Liang Pin
Overview
In a world where the camera lens is ubiquitous, everyone is subject and photographer. We are making images and becoming ones; while we share images, we are also being presented by them. Some say images are taken, some think images are made; and in today’s deluge of images, some argue that images are selected.
How can we think reflexively on the politics of the image in the relational tension between taking and being taken, making and being made, presenting and being presented? How to depict the ever-changing ethical boundaries in the computational technology and circulation mechanism of images, and the current social context of the Internet? Is photography free? Are images equal? Does art require consensus, empathy?
The selected five transmedia works in this exhibition derive from the Co-creation Workshop organised by Lightbox Photo Library this year. The three mentors — Cheng Ting Ting, Miao Chih Shan and Tsao Liang Pin — employed a quadratic voting procedure via online meetings to deliberate on the ten works, selecting five, and assigning the sequence for screening.
Huang Jiao, Tang Zuo Xin, Ma Yu Chen, Lin Yu En, and Chen Yan Cheng, the five young creators in Becoming Image: New Horizons of Taiwanese Photography, have created works with diverse themes, ranging from the psychological world of drug users, the disintegration and conflict of self-awareness, the struggle for housing justice, the reinterpretation of family history, the dialogue and gaps between generations, and how photography alters travel and memory.
Their works reflect real-life experiences in local communities and how people understand and respond to the external reality as well as their inner emotions. It is hoped that this exhibition will help the public rethink and reimagine the nature of photography and the potential of images, particularly from the perspective of co-creation. Perhaps viewers can discern the change and constancy of reality in our world of appearances and relationships.
The Works
Huang Jiao (Ng Kiò): On The Contrary (fusion)
Tang Zuo Xin: Daguan Community, My Home
Lin Yu En: Missing memories
Ma Yu Chen: Family memory book
Chen Yan Cheng: KOI