JOIN USChien-Chi Chang of Taiwan, an award-winning photographer with Magnum Photos, is dedicated to investigating the ties that bind people to each other, and drawing inspiration from his own deeply-divided immigrant experience. The renowned photographer was at the Alliance Française de Bangalore recently, where he presented some of his major works in photo-essay and multimedia formats.
Chien-Chi Chang’s best known work is The Chain, a collection of portraits that were taken in a mental asylum in Taiwan, which caused a sensation when it was shown at La Biennale di Venezia and the Bienal de Sao Paulo.
He has treated marital ties in two books — I do I do I do, a collection of images depicting alienated grooms and brides in Taiwan, and Double Happiness, a brutal depiction of the business of selling brides in Vietnam.
For 20 years, Chang has photographed the bifurcated lives of Chinese immigrants in New York’s Chinatown, along with those of their wives and families back home in Fujian.
Here is an exclusive interview with the photographer:
Can you tell us about yourself and your childhood?
I grew up in a remote rural village in central Taiwan. I didn’t start photography until I went to the United States for graduate studies in 1988. After 22 years in America, I moved to Graz, Austria.
When did you get interested in photography?
I don’t think there was a defining moment when I made a decision, but it was with gradual accumulation of continuous practices day in and day out that I finally realised photography was my life’s calling.
How has technology changed the quality of your photographs?
I love shooting films, but I also enjoy working with new technology. In the end, it’s a tool to create photographs.
What was your life like in your initial years as a photographer?
Just like most photographers, in the beginning, it was a struggle. Well, I am still struggling, except that it is a different kind of struggle now, and the most difficult thing I have to face today is how to go deeper into my story.
What are the photographs that you remember?
I am only fond of the photographs that have stayed with me for the past 27-plus years. Yes, I have won some awards and have published four books, but the “struggle” continues.
Do you think a photograph is worth a 1,000 words? Why?
A photograph can be worth more than a 1,000 words, or less. A still photograph could have the moving power to crystallise the essence of life in a split second.
What were some of the messages you tried to convey through your photographs? How do you handle difficult subjects?
Most of my projects are based on my own experience as a migrant and an immigrant. I have photographed difficult subjects who are sometimes very open to being photographed, but the process can also be very dangerous.
How was the experience of shooting some of your important works like The Selling of Brides in Vietnam, Chinese immigrants in Chinatown and Portraits of a Mental Asylum
in Taiwan?
It was difficult because I can relate to the people I photograph, and because most of what I photograph is based on my own experience.
Have mobile cameras and the ‘selfie culture’ destroyed the appreciation of the beauty of the photographs taken by a high-end camera?
The ‘selfie culture’ doesn’t destroy the appreciation of the beauty of photos taken by a high-end camera. A camera is a camera, and it is just a tool. The more people take photographs, the better it is. Because it finally becomes a democratic way of seeing, sharing and communicating your ideas.
How do you balance how a photographer perceives a subject and how the subject wishes to be perceived in front of a camera?
It all comes down to the photographer’s ability of using camera as a tool and photography as a language to express his or her unique way of seeing the world.
What is the response you have received from people to your photographs?
People respond to photographs differently, and a lot of the response depends on their upbringing, culture and customs. I am fine with all kinds of comments or no comments.
What do you like to do when you are not working?
I try to spend as much time with my kids and my family when I am free.
What is your advice to aspiring photographers?
Don’t be afraid to fail. Try and try and try again. Be persistent.
What are your plans for the future?
I want to complete four films and bring out three books in the next five years.