Reclaiming Reality: On the Historical Formation of Taiwanese Photography

A collection of photography history researcher Chang Shih-lun’s writings, Reclaiming Reality: On the Historical Formation of Taiwanese Photography revisits the archives and historical events using the lens of cultural study, and takes the readers through the ebb and flow of photography in Taiwan’s history while reflecting on the formation of the histories of photography.

The book covers a wide range of imagery literature and historical events. It explores the relationship between imagery and reality through photography archives, ehagaki (Japanese pictorial postcards) collections, photographs, landscape and cultural photography, identification photographs to propaganda materials dated between the 19th and early 20th centuries. The book also revisits the development of salon photography, modernist trends, documentary photography and contemporary photography in Taiwan, and the key influences on major art and cultural publications. It sheds light on the different modes of imagery practice that have developed and transform them into a form of visio-cultural thinking that is closely relatable and an important opportunity to reconsider the concept of “photography history”.