Photo Essay--Homeless in the Global Village

Mount Rushmore, USA, 1992.

Groping at our living space just like the blind men feeling the elephant, each time I glance through my lens and the light traverses the aperture, I understand less.

Karaoke club, Panchiao, 1996.

At museums, on the street, at sidewalk stands, in temples, at the vanguard of urban design, and in the shifting light and shadows of the city, looking for the value of existence, I'm oppressed by a nightmare that piles up over my head as thick as clouds, blocking the road ahead. Masses of people coming, masses of people going, and I'm just living on here in this empty, preposterous world of corruption and waste.

Lungshan Temple, Lukang, 1993.

There are those who tempt us with pretty scenes of a future world where information networks bring everyone on the globe together: we'll all be joined. Anywhere in the world we can go will look pretty much the same; what will link you and I in communication will be "selling." We've all heard, "Smiles are the international language," but these days I think it is more like, "Selling is the international language."

Beside the Canal, Tainan, 1994.

The distant future is great, but the present is here and now. We live in a place that eats a freeway every year, and being on that freeway is like sitting in a parking lot but paying like a toll road. At the end of this century, we're full of anxiety and anger. Is it that stock market, those missiles, the national status, corruption, underworld influence or political parties we are worried about; or is it our air, sunlight, water and culture?

Hsinyi Intersection, Taipei, 1996.

Beginning from a search for the parameters of culture, in 1991 I completed the main structure of "Seeing East Seeing West Seeing," rejecting the extremes of capitalist development, and the nightmares from the American continent in scenes resembling those from various hells. In 1993 I awoke from my American Dream and fled back to Taiwan. I really wanted to come back to my own land to spend my time, but just saw repeated encounters with more catastrophes of money, culture, media, and government.

Confucian Temple, Tainan, 1995.

On the eve of the new century, I go out alone for a stroll. On days when I look up, and can't see the blue sky, or at night the multitude of stars, I spend my life fretfully, not knowing what I should be doing. In these pictures, I use the four essentials of human life-clothing, food, shelter and transport-as a frame for a screen with images of what the global village looks like these days:

Hakka Theater, Lungtan, 1994.

Our clothes are no longer just for warmth,

Department Store, Taipei, 1996.

Our food no longer just to stave off hunger,

American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA, 1994.

Our houses no longer just for shelter,

Our transport no longer just to save walking.

Our sense of values is being reorganized, our functions are changing, the signs bequeathed by history are being transformed; with the promises of this beautiful new world, I've long since been reduced to one of the "homeless in the global village."

Albert J. L. Huang

Master of Fine Arts in Photography, School of Visual Arts, New York; BA in Photography and Cinematography, Southern Illinois University.

Presently lecturer at Fu Jen University Communications Department and Tamkang University Communications Department; contractual photographer in Taiwan for The New York Times, Newsweek and US News and World Report.

Solo Photographic Exhibitions at: Ansel Adams Center, San Francisco; Film in the Cities, St. Paul, Minnesota; 154 Wooster Gallery, Soho, New York; Taiwan Museum of Art; Taipei Fine Arts Museum; New Phase Art Space, Tainan; etc..

Works in permanent collection at: Houston Gallery of Fine Arts; New York Municipal Public Library; School of Visual Arts, New York; private collections.

p.107

Luermen Matsu Temple, Tainan, 1995

p.108

Mount Rushmore, USA, 1992

p.109

Karaoke club, Panchiao, 1996

p.110

Lungshan Temple, Lukang, 1993

p.111

Beside the Canal, Tainan, 1994

p.112

Hsinyi Intersection, Taipei, 1996