Author:Quo Ying-Sheng(1950-)

Category：Photograph

Year：1969

Size:Length:50.7 x Width:61 (cm)

Introduction：A black-and-white outdoor photograph taken in natural light shows the panoramic landscape of Kaohsiung’s Moon World, with its rugged, eroded terrain. From the upper left to the lower right, light and shadow divide the composition; within the dark area at upper left, a tiny human figure can be faintly discerned.

The high-contrast textures of the image reveal Quo Ying-Sheng’s early photographic sensibility and his formal approach. By juxtaposing the rough terrain with the small scale of the human figure, he conveys a distinct sense of solitude and desolation. In contrast to the salon-style photography or documentary trends prevalent under the influence of photography societies at the time, the young artist’s engagement with modernist ideas is already evident in this work, marking the beginning of his own artistic direction.

This photograph was taken during Quo’s graduation trip from college. Having just purchased his first camera, he already demonstrated a way of using and thinking about photography that differed markedly from casual travel documentation. During this period, he also collected Japanese and other international photo books from shops in Ximending and assisted film students in their shoots, early signs of his growing engagement with visual thinking.

CHEN Wei-Chien — Metadata of the Collection of the National Center of Photography and Images, 2020, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts: Reconstructing Taiwan Art History Project

Media and Techniques：Inkjet print

Accession number:NCP2016-013-0011