Vision of Taiwan
The “Vision of Taiwan” series of images expresses personal observations, experiences and opinions of the environment of Taiwan. “Photography” has been a means for me to find emotional relief. The photographing process, I stood inside a space and photographed myself with long exposure by flashing my face with multiple flashes using a handheld flashlight. The intense flashes enable the releasing of emotion, and the property of photosensitive materials that accumulates light and allows “over exposure” to be produced in an “out of control” manner and causes temporary “blindness” or “lost of sight” in human faces, and beyond the visual aesthetics in the visual expression form the “environmental” issues and the conflicting perception of “aesthetics” hidden behind the visual perspectives, insinuating the absurdity and conflicts that exist in the environment.
Behind the seemingly image of a beautiful scenery hides absurd objects and environmental crisis. A “human figure billboard” faces the public indifferently without any facial expressions. The face of existing environmental seems to have lost the “real world” into a vacuum of the situation, therefore one can only “look without seeing” when facing current situations in the surroundings. The “Vision of Taiwan” series offers views from the “documentary photography” aspects of recognition of the relations between humans and our surroundings and the “surrealism” aspects of calm criticism. Although it does show a certain level of disappointment and pessimism toward the current state of Taiwan’s environment, but it still holds an ideal of expectation of “life reform”.
