臺南國際攝影節

Venue: Siao-Long Cultural Park, A3 Gallery

Introduction:

Born in 1932, Hsu Yuan-fu grew up in the lanes behind the busy Minquan Road of the prosperous Tainan City while the meandering alleys were his playground. He used to see the Japanese photographer in the photo studio of Tougodo Company to develop photos like performing magic. When he was an elementary student, he sometimes helped his brother who owned a photo shop to stir the films soaked in chemical solution in the darkroom. Since then, he started to explore his interest in photography. From a young age, Hsu has been a versatile and conscious artist with infinite and unconstrained creativity. These characteristics also attribute to his non-stereotype and thriving on challenge reflected by his future creations in photography. Pushing the boundary of Taiwan’s photography, Hsu has submitted his works to Japanese magazines to demonstrate his energy in creation. After becoming a father, he started to design personal photo album for each daughter as a precious family heirloom. It is a great honor of “Tainan International Foto Festival TiFF” to invite Hsu Yuan-fu as the first “Keynote photographer”, who, by setting an excellent paradigm, will inherit the legacy and usher in a new era for Tainan’s photography and photography festival.

Keynote Photographer - Hsu Yuan-fu Solo Exhibition is a two-year-long program. Curated by Huang and Chen, the galleary has been organized in three thematic sections: Signature Works, Family Album, and Photographic education. 

【Signature Works】

The keynote photographer of “Tainan International Foto Festival TiFF”, Hsu Yuan-fu, is known for diversity of his works. It was a difficult task to select any signature piece with particular genre that can represent him. Therefore, all the important works of Hsu are included in the exhibition and arranged based on their realistic aspect, artistic expression, and experimentality. 

Realistic photography has been playing a significant role in the development of photography history in Taiwan. Living in Tainan, Hsu Yuan-fu has captured some critical shots of Tainan’s cityscape. In the photo, “A Typhoon Day”, he took the shot when hiding in the telephone booth next to Siwei Underpass at Min-tzu Road.  The sight will disappear after the railway goes underground. Hsu’s full-time job is an elementary school teacher, school scenes and students are subjects in the photos being exhibited too.

Although being a photographer, Hsu tends to present his works through the perspective of fine art.  It is a peculiar angle for a conventional documentary photographer. In his photo, “In the Shape of a Cow” shows the ambiguity between a geometrical form and the subject in reality.

Experimentality, which unveils Hsu’s attempt in manipulating light and shadow, various media, and experiments in the dark room, demonstrates the accomplishment of his exploration in photography.

【Family Album】

Hsu Yuan-fu’s interest in photography was first kindled by Alia Photo Studio, which was co-founded by Hsu’s eldest brother and brother-in-law.  It was his disappointment in life that he had only 5 photos in his childhood since photographing was quite expensive back then.  For Hsu, it is more important to save images of life experiences for kids rather than leaving them with fortune. In 1955, Hsu bought his first camera. In 1956, his eldest daughter Hsu Hong-mei was born and in 1958, 1960, 1962, and 1964, Hsu Hong-ming, Hsu Hong-chin, Hsu Shi-zhen , and Hsu Bi-jie  consecutively joined the family.

When visiting Hsu Yuan-fu in 2017 for the interview of this exhibition, we learned that dowries he has prepared for each daughter are dozens of family albums to record life events and memories.  From every page of these delicately handmade albums, all the photos are skillfully laid out in order while Hsu’s creativity in photography as an extraordinary craft can be observed. The descriptions of all the photos in the albums also show selfless love of a father to his family. These photos, which have never been unveiled to the public before, are valuable works in the photography history of Taiwan.

【Photographic Education】

The photographer, Hsu Yuan-fu, has been teaching for his whole life since he started his career as an elementary school teacher. When he was young, Hsu joined some photography clubs and associations in order to learn the skills. However, it was not an easy and smooth approach for him. Therefore, since then, it has been Hsu’s aspiration that someday if he has the opportunity, he would definitely devote himself to teaching photography. In 1968, Hsu Yuan-fu was granted the Fellowship of the Photographic Society of Taiwan and designated to be the academic committee member of the Society in 1970. Hsu has endeavored to promote photography through publishing articles in the journals of the Society and translate innovative ideas from Japanese photography resources.  From historic documents collected by Yuan-fu Hsu, we have also found an autograph letter written by Deng Nan-guang, who was the chief editor and a photographer in the Photographic Society of Taiwan to invite Hsu to publish his articles in the journals of the Society.

Since 1972, Hsu has started to teach “Photography Design” in Arts and Crafts Department of Tung Fang Institute of Technology. In 1993, he taught architectural photography in the Department of Architecture in Kao Yuan University while in 2000, he taught commercial photography in the Department of Mass Communication in Chang Jung Christian University. He has invented the conforming template of double-image background, studied black and white film developing under high and low temperatures, created exposure value calculator, and made color original templates to generate synthetic background for 4ｘ5 camera. As a photographer, Hsu Yuan-fu has dedicated his life to teaching photography, passing down his professional experiences, and developing tools for photography education.