Author:

Category：Photograph

Material:Paper

Year：1962

Size:Length:76 x Width:49 (cm)

Size description：無

Weight:5800g

Introduction：Moon World, Taiwan is an outstanding early work of Ko Shi-Chi. In a composition of interwoven visual illusions, the work presents a stable yet implicitly dynamic style, offering a sneak preview to the photographer’s unique eyes for capturing landscapes in the future.

In the picture, despite being the main subject of the overall composition, the mountain range exhibits the greatest visual dynamics through its stable form, where the rugged and wrinkled features enable natural light and shadow to construct variations and twists resembling the wrinkling technique of ink wash painting, and the unique karst topography allows natural light and shadow to form a more compelling visual construct. The mirror-like lake in front of the mountain range converts the surrealist reflective illusion into the intriguing charms of the work. The reflections of the mountain range and clouds on the surface of the lake that connect with reality make the up and down, the real and fictional visual correspondences even more vivid and lively.

Furthermore, the photographer uses black-and-white film as the visual basis to capture the landscape, which is another reason for the work’s unique beauty. On one hand, Moon World’s landscape is naturally echoing the depiction of ink landscape painting; on the other, the natural variations of light and shadow can more vividly highlight the contrasts of textures and qualities in black-and-white photography. Thus, the calm and smooth mirror-like lake, the fluffy and light-as-cotton clouds, and the wrinkled, rangy, withered, and primitive textural qualities of the mountain range, are all displaying the unique charms of their respective textures and qualities.

Shen Bo-Cheng, National Center of Photography and Images Collection Metadata, 2019

Media and Techniques：Inkjet print

Accession Number:NCP2016-025-0002