Swan Lake in Stills

Hsieh Meng-hsiung, who studied medicine, fell for photography at young age. When he was just 13 he got his first camera--too cool!--from the husband-to-be of his aunt, who was an amateur photographer. This uncle would become Hsieh's first master-teacher in his study of this art.

While studying pathology in medical school, Hsieh discovered the microscope and came to the conclusion that only photographs--and not traditional illustrations--could capture the glimpses of eternity revealed in this window to the mysterious world of biology. At this time, Hsieh also began to make a photographic record of his family and the things around him. They piled up--photo by photo, album by album--and soon his grinning child in the picture frame was fully grown.

It was completely by accident that he started to take photographs of staged performances. In 1973 Hsieh began serving as president of Shih Chien College, where the annual graduation fashion show is one of the school's most important activities. From the need to make a record of this event for the students, he grew intrigued by the beauty and high challenge of stage photography. Over the course of two decades, from the fashion runways at major hotels to the stages at the National Taiwan Art Education Institute, the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall and the National Theater, Hsieh took shots for performance after performance. His countless excellent stills of performers acting, singing or dancing capture the essence of the moment--whether it be a dancer's leap or the emotions in an actor's eyes. And the single performance that Hsieh captured with the greatest feeling was the Moscow City Ballet's rendition of Swan Lake in Taipei three years ago.

"After seeing Huang Mountain," the saying goes, "who cares to view others?" Hsieh says that during that performance of Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky's music, the ballerinas' supreme artistic movements, and the troupe's magnificent sets combined into a beautiful whole. Under the lights of the stage with ASA 1600 and 400 film, his finger clicked the shutter to the rhythm of the music and dance. Carried away by emotional surges as the drama moved from one climax to the next, he nearly lost control of himself. He counts it as the most moving performance he has ever seen.

What follow are ten photos we have selected from among the nearly 100 he took that night of ballet.

The story of Swan Lake

Once upon a time there lived an incomparably gorgeous princess. One day she made the mistake of entering the realm of an evil wizard who cast a spell and turned her and her maids into swans. Day after day she led her flock of maid swans in sad wandering through the forest. Only in the deep dark night before dawn did they return to their human forms, and the only way to break the spell was to have a young man show undying love for the princess.

In a neighboring country a prince was celebrating his birthday. His mother the queen told him that since he was now full grown, on the evening of the following day they would hold a dance where he could select a royal bride. At learning that his carefree childhood was over, the youth grew sullen, and to cheer him up his friends invited him to go hunting in the forest.

The hunting party follows the swans to the lake, where they suddenly returned to their human forms. The prince was awestruck by the princess's beauty and fell in love with her at first sight of her in human form, swearing that he would marry no other. The hunter and hunted then lost themselves in dance, joyous at the spell having been broken. The wizard, who had turned himself into an owl, looked on coolly from a distance and thought of a plan to quash their happiness.

The following night other beautiful princesses came from far and wide to the brightly lit palace and danced elegantly in the hope of being chosen. But the prince, remaining faithful to his oath, gave none a second glance. Suddenly, his love approached the castle on the arm of a knight. The prince was overjoyed, danced with her, and in front of everyone asked for her hand in marriage. Just then storm clouds rolled in overhead, and the ogress pretending to be the princess and the evil wizard pretending to be her father the knight showed themselves for who they really were. When the prince discovered that he had been tricked, he ran off to Swan Lake to find the princess and beg forgiveness.

At the edge of the lake, the princess told her maid swans that the prince had been tricked into breaking his oath. She said that there was no hope of breaking the spell and that she was going to die. The prince was overcome with remorse, but there was nothing he could do, and he watched as the swan shed her feathers nearing death. The prince fought with the wizard, killing him in revenge. Yet the prince too was mortally wounded in the fight, and so he stood with the princess and they together awaited death. The maid swans, because the wizard had died, were released from his spell and retook their human forms, and with best wishes of the spirits of the prince and princess, who were finally united in death, they ran off to the castle.