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Categories / Cityscapes /Tags / Asia / Cityscapes / conceptual photography / documentary photography / Taiwan / Click here to open comments section, click again when done to close / Comments Off

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In Taipei’s recent years, architectural projects seem to overflow the city. Hi-tech high-rises, community residential structures, or the recent trend of ecological “green” buildings, all have an emphasis on functionality, but seem to lack in humanity and culture.

This underlines the uniqueness of the old architectures from the Japanese colonization period in Taiwan. These buildings seem to represent a particular spirit that belongs to that specific era.

I’ve lived in Taipei for nearly forty years, and consider myself a true local. Said that, I have never really taken the time to truly appreciate the old architecture of Taipei. It wasn’t until my job relocated from the East District to the West District’s Hsiang Yang Road that I began to come into contact with buildings such as the Museum (Taipei New Park) and Land Bank (Kangyo Bank), I was inspired to do a photography project based on these old architectures.

I’ve selected Taipei’s West District to be the main location for my photo shoots, because of the location’s early developments. Its narrow passageways are mixed with new and old buildings. Some of them date back to the Japanese colonial administrational architecture, and have low old street houses adjacently connected to them.

These buildings were once very distinct landscapes of this city.

Today, with an 8x10 camera and a medium that is going extinct (Polaroid films), and by creating photo collages, I attempt to connect together the nostalgic memories that may be held for these old buildings.

In the recent years, the phenomenon of digital imaging has taken over just like new cosmopolitan architectures replacing the old, and with this in mind, I’ve selected to use Polaroid 809 films.

Using this medium to capture these old buildings seems quite sentimental, but on a certain level, they are quite matching. The color inaccuracy and the lack of clarity on the images give the photographs a nostalgic touch. After the image processing, they seem to posses a water-color-like character, and this seem to bring the images closer to the qualities that the architectures hold.

The series of works for “Streets Connected” represent the different stages and challenges that one has to face in life. In the process of the on-going collages and organizations, some of the architectures have already been dismantled, and Polaroid film has also been discontinued in 2008.