Author:Dennis K. Chin(1922-2014)

Category：Photograph

Material:Paper

Year：1939

Size:Length:24.2 x Width:29.2 (cm)

Size description：無

Introduction：Water Mill, First Calling (Stillness), and Wind (Movement) are taken by Dennis K. Chin when he was working in a Shanghai Bank at 17 years old. A colleague of him encouraged him to participate in the photography competition held by The Young Compagnon in which he picked four works from his first film to participate. Among them, Water Mill, First Calling (Stillness), and Wind (Movement) won the first, second, and seventh prize of the competition where Long Chin-san was one of the judges at that time.

“I am very happy to be a photographer in my whole life. Being a photojournalist is like being able to sit in the first row to watch the show. It is full of blessing and pleasure.” Chin recalled: “When I was ten years old, I lived in Beijing and came to love photography. I always followed my uncle Chin Yuan-hua, who was just seven or eight years older than me, to take pictures. At that time, I knew nothing about photo making, so I helped him carry the camera stand and follow him everywhere for photographing. When I was seventeen years old, I bought a second-handed camera with Agfa 6×9 film and ground glass from a flea market in Shanghai and started taking pictures. I had studied chemistry in high school, so I processed the film myself. As I studied at a church school, my English was pretty good. I thus often read photography publications in English, and learned a lot of related knowledge and techniques.”

After he won the award, he was absent-minded at work at the bank. He lost interest in calculations of numbers and banking. As long as the weather was good, he became preoccupied. At that time, The Young Compagnon interviewed Chin and published his works. One day, the pictorial asked Chin if he wanted to take pictures for the magazine. He was so glad that he immediately agreed and quit his job at the bank. He embarked on his lifelong photography journey by taking pictures for The Young Compagnon.

Water Mill was shot in the countryside of Suzhou when Chin studied in a high school there. He was good at physics and chemistry (so he could process the photos by himself). He was a “little gamin” since he was a child, and loved to tease the teachers. From time to time he skipped school for a walk. There were many rice fields in the countryside of Suzhou that need to be irrigated. It happened that the farm couple was pedaling a Water Mill to irrigate the fields. He shot the silhouette of the farm couple against the light as soon as they stepped on the waterwheel. In the picture, the couple holds the pole in front of him, stepping hard. The pole resembles two crosses, signifying the spirit of toiling for the heaven and the earth and for survival. He can be said to have aesthetic talents as the backlit silhouette shooting technique was very rare in that era.

Yang Yong-zhi, “2021 Compilation and Research Project of Metadata in Photography”.

Quotation by Dennis K. Chin, compiled by Angel Yang.
Media sources related to the “old gamin of photography,” Dennis K. Chin, compiled by Angel Yang.
Materials related to Chin’s works dictated and provided by students of Dennis K. Chin, Ching Hsieh and Angel Yang.

Media and Techniques：Gelatin silver print

Accession Number:NCP2016-012-0001