Based in Taipei, Taiwan, Lightbox Photo Library is a non-profit organization specializing in books focused on the discourse and appreciation of the photographic medium. This year, the 9th SIPF has partnered with Lightbox to present a travelling photobook showcase comprised of 17 photobooks from Lightbox’s collection.
This travelling book showcase is part of the 9th SIPF Photobook Showcase, on exhibit from 18 to 27 October 2024 at the National Design Centre.
20 October (Sun), 11am to 12pm
[About the Showcase]
Photobooks of Taiwan — The Ongoing Democratic Conversation
In discussing photography of Taiwan in 2024, it’s crucial to recognize Taiwan’s rich history as an island of immigrants. This includes indigenous people, Minnan and Hakka immigrants from Fujian and Guangdong who arrived 300 years ago, Chinese immigrants who joined the Kuomintang’s move to Taiwan in 1949, and the influx of immigrants from Southeast Asia and China in recent years.
Additionally, Taiwan has often found itself at the frontier of geopolitical powers. Over the past 400 years, Taiwan has been ruled by various political entities including the Spanish, the Dutch, the Zheng family, the Qing Empire, Japanese, and the Kuomintang. The above two factors have shaped Taiwan’s foreign relations and social structure at different periods, establishing the cultural diversity of contemporary Taiwanese society and the divisions in national identity.
The development of photography in Taiwan has been influenced by the political, economic, and socio-cultural conditions. Nevertheless, photography has also played an important role in advancing Taiwan’s democratization in the process of reconstructing Taiwanese identity and culture.
Given the complex histories and the current state of Taiwan’s arts and cultural environment, any attempt to curate an exhibition that encapsulates over 150 years of photographic history, along with its political, economic, and social contexts would inevitably fall short. To address this, we have shifted the focus to the strategy of photography publishing and its relationship with reality.
In other words, photobooks are not only seen as art objects or creative practices, they also represent the intervention and negotiation between artists and their community environments under different real-world conditions. By and large, Taiwanese photography publishing can roughly be categorized into four models: commercial publishing house-led, independent publishing house selection, self-funded publishing, and exhibition catalogs from public art museums.
With this photobook exhibition, we aim to offer viewers a glimpse of the unique characteristics developed in contemporary Taiwanese society amidst its diverse ethnic cultures, differing national identities, and ongoing democratization process through a series of photographic publications.
At the same time, it also opens a window into the contemporary photography scene in Taiwan, as well as how Taiwanese photographers continue to experiment and explore in the face of publishing challenges, forging their own paths in creating photobooks.
台灣攝影書：持續進行的民主對話
在 2024 年的今天討論「台灣攝影」，首先需要了解台灣是一座移民之島。主要人口包含原住民、300 年前從福建和廣東來的閩南與客家移民、1949 年隨國民黨來台的中國移民，以及近年來東南亞和中國的新移民。
再者，台灣在歷史上，一直是地緣政治強權的邊陲，400 年來受到西班牙、荷蘭、鄭氏、清帝國、日本、國民黨等不同政權統治。上述二者形塑了台灣在不同時期的對外關係與社會結構，也奠定了當代台灣社會的文化多元性，以及在國族認同上的分歧。
攝影在台灣的發展歷程中，自然也受到上述政治、經濟、社會與文化條件的影響，但同時，也在台灣人的身分建構及文化認同過程中，扮演了重要的民主化推手。
考量台灣複雜的歷史與藝文環境的現況，若以攝影出版物為主體，試圖描繪台灣的攝影創作圖景，策劃橫跨 150 年以上的攝影歷史、政經、社會脈絡的展覽，必將出現不少的缺漏。因此，我們決定將焦點轉往攝影出版的策略，及其與現實之間的關係。
換言之，攝影書不只被視作一種藝術物件或創作實踐，更是身處在不同現實條件下的創作者，
與社群環境之間的斡旋與介入。大體而言，台灣攝影出版約略可分為四種模式：商業出版社主導、獨立出版社選輯、創作者自費出版，以及公立美術館的展覽圖錄。
透過這檔台灣當代攝影書展，我們期待觀者可以在一系列攝影出版物的內容與脈絡當中，瞥見當代台灣社會在多元的族群文化、分歧的國家認同，以及在持續民主化的進程中，所發展出的獨特樣態。同時，亦可一窺台灣當代的攝影創作風貌，以及在出版的現實困境下，台灣的攝影創作者如何持續地實驗及探索，開創出自己的藝術出版道路。
[About the Lightbox Photo Library]
Founded in 2016, Lightbox Photo Library is a non-profit organization based in Taiwan that is free and open to everyone. They utilize the library as a method to preserve, research and promote photographic publications from Taiwan.
Through various initiatives, Lightbox aims to deepen perspectives originating from Taiwan and advance the democratization of art, including the New Wave Photography Award and the inaugural Taiwan International Photography Festival in 2025.
Lightbox collaborates with the community to create a more open and equitable environment for photography, encouraging everyone to take part in the conversation and develop a complex view and nuanced understanding of the art form.
