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Old watercourse image wins photography competition

  • Date:2019-11-29
Old watercourse image wins photography competition

A photo of the Hilltop Garden Watercourse Museum (臺南山上花園水道博物館), a heritage site in southern Taiwan, has been chosen from 50 finalists as the winner of the "Loving Monuments" photography contest organized by the Ministry of Culture in partnership with Wiki Loves Monuments.

The winning photo fully captures the spectacular aesthetics of the Garden Watercourse Museum — its overall composition, lighting, and colors have all received favorable comments from the panel of judges. In addition, the museum itself is of historical, cultural, and artistic value as it stands today as a milestone in the modernization of Taiwan's water-supply system.

In a unique take on photography competitions, the Ministry has cooperated with Wiki Loves Monuments, the world's largest photography competition for historical monuments, to enrich the licensable collection of photographs on Taiwan's heritage sites.

A photo that features the Wanchin Basilica of the Immaculate Conception (萬金聖母聖殿), the oldest basilica church in Taiwan, earned second place, and the third place went to Taipei's Dalongdong Bao'an Temple (大龍峒保安宮), an embodiment of Taiwan's rich religious history.

Together with the winning photos, seven selected entries — featuring Dongyindao Lighthouse (東湧燈塔), Tamshui Yinshan Temple (淡水鄞山寺), Museum of Drinking Water (臺北水道水源地), Lin Family Mansion and Garden (林本源園邸), Beigang Chaotian Temple (北港朝天宮), Cihou Fort (旗後礮臺), and Longteng Bridge (魚藤坪斷橋) — has been submitted to the 2019 Wiki Loves Monuments global contest.

Following the "Loving Monuments" contest, which has seen more than 2,000 submissions from photographers nationwide since it kicked off on Sept. 1, the Ministry held another open call on Oct. 1 for "Collecting Memories" to gather individual and group photographs of subjects that illuminate Taiwan's past.

Apart from these two competitions, a series of photo-sharing events was arranged in the capital Taipei, the coastal city of Taitung, and the southern county of Pingtung, receiving warm responses from the public. People attended the events with bags of old photo albums, including images of the late elephant Lin Wang (林旺), a beloved icon for many, a photo capturing one participant’s grandma's early apprenticeship in a hair salon, and an image portraying ring toss games at traditional markets.

Furthermore, the Ministry will team up with Wikimedia Taiwan, a local Wikimedia chapter, to document the collective memories of Taiwan by holding public activities like writing workshops in the near future. For more details, please visit https://memorybank.culture.tw/