To introduce the works of the late photographer Yeh Ching-fang (葉清芳), the National Center of Photography and Images (NCPI) invites Lu Hsiao-yu (呂筱渝) to curate a virtual exhibition titled "The Immersed Echos: Yeh Ching-Fang's Photography in 1980s," featuring a collection of Yeh's works that documents the people, scenes, events, and society of Taiwan in the 1980s under five sub-topics.
The 1980s were a period of change for Taiwan, from the lifting of martial law to rapid economic growth. Amidst the turbulent times, reforms in politics and social movements have emerged in Taiwan. Due to his work, Yeh took numerous images of the mass movements and documented the era before and after martial law through his lenses, and recorded the dramatic moments.
The gold medal Yeh won in the black-and-white division of the National Colleges Photography Contest when he was a student of photojournalism at Shih Hsin University marked the beginning of his career. He then worked in publications including China Times Weekly. Although Yeh passed away at the age of 45 because of liver disease in 2005, his aesthetic and personal style shine through his photographic works, allowing viewers to feel the delicacy and warmth behind the hustle and bustle of images.
The tumultuous, confused, and uneasy emotions we see in Yeh’s works defined the 1980s. Yeh utilized slow shutter speed and multiple exposures in his photos to create a blurred and out-of-focus effect, symbolizing the chaos and weirdness of reality, and reflecting the sense of alienation and loneliness in everyone.
"The Immersed Echos: Yeh Ching-Fang's Photography in 1980s" online exhibition is now available on the NCPI
website.