臺南國際攝影節

Tainan is the city where western photography was first introduced to in Taiwan. During Japanese-rule era, there were many photo studios on the streets. Photography as a form of recreation was a fashion among upper and middle class people while photography contests and technical lectures were quite popular.

However, most of people are still unfamiliar with those prominent photographers in Taiwan and their works. Therefore, “Tainan International Foto Festival TiFF” presents the series of “Keynote photographer”. The audience are invited to rediscover photographers from different eras through their creations which are arranged in certain logic and interpreted from contemporary perspective. They can acquire a profound and comprehensive picture of a photographer from their works, documents, personal collections, and documentary.

“Keynote photographer” is one of the missions in “Tainan International Foto Festival TiFF”. It is hoped that through the investigation, research, and documents of Tainan’s photography history, we can stretch to the world in the future and invite more internationally well-known photographers to join the exhibitions.

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.