| Summary: | 碩士 === 臺北市立教育大學 === 視覺藝術學系視覺藝術教學碩士學位班 === 99 === In this study, I survey the photographic works, taken by Chang Tsai (1916-1994), one of the Three Musketeers in Taiwan’s photography, dated from 1942 to 1946, and filmed on the streets of Shanghai. By reviewing his pictures, not only can we explore the truth to see how one’s photographic perception influence this photographer's art work and its transformation process, but also examine the value of Chang Tsai’s photo collection through his specific form of artistic expression.
Chang Tsai had gone through the Japanese colonial period (1895-1945) and witnessed Taiwan's social and cultural transformation. On the other hand, he had accumulated huge social concern and paid closed attention to the contrasts among different social classes from the life experience of staying with acting troupe in his childhood, studying photography in Japan, and making contact with leftist ideology. When traveling to Shanghai, he received great impact on noting the problems of urban development and recorded the abnormal phenomenon of city expansion via Leica camera.
Although appearing pure documentary trait with unit-aspect, by using surreal photographic techniques to record the instantaneous movement on the streets, Chang Tsai’s Shanghai series photo collection drew radical contrasts within urban city, and underlined an intense social criticism pattern among plain but tangible scenes. Regarding the growth of modernization in Shanghai, it was displayed upon the high-rise buildings in this cosmopolitan city. The skyscrapers were the symbol of times’ evolution as well as the indicator of penetrating the Chinese traditional architectural skyline. Besides, the westernized window display, the trendy beautifully-dressed pedestrians and multi-dimensional style of advertising signs were all entangled in this disorganized and complex urban compound.
Applying simple but impressive view angle, Chang Tsai expressed energetic life force of Shanghai. With photographer’s calmly viewing position, he objectively marked the sumptuousness and decay of Modern Shanghai. All these rational documentary images with critical viewpoints have become the distinguishing characteristics in Shanghai series photo collection.
Keywords: photography, Shanghai, Chang Tsai, visual criticism
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