Huang Tse-hsiu: Portraitist of Lungshan Temple

Taipei's Lungshan Temple is one of the better preserved temples on Taiwan and a magnet for tourists, believers, and ordinary citizens alike. Nevertheless, with the island's rapid social and cultural changes over the years, the temple has undeniably lost some of the simplicity, sincerity, and spirituality that we find it had when these pictures of it were taken some 30 years ago. Huang Tse-hsiu spent seven or eight years making this fine photographic record of the temple and the meaning it once held for earlier generations.

His original motive in photographing the "Lungshan Temple" series, Huang says, came from his dissatisfaction with the "salon" photography esteemed at the time, which featured lovely ladies, lotus ponds, and the like. He wanted to prove that beauty could also be found in a place like Lungshan Temple, if photographers would only make the effort to look for it with a realistic eye.

Beginning in 1954, Huang found him self running off with his camera to Lung- shan Temple every chance he got. At first he concentrated chiefly on the temple's outward appearance--its architecture, carvings, and sculpture--but with time, he gradually shifted the emotional center of the series to the faces, attitudes, and life styles of the people he found there. As he did so, the statues, carvings, and architecture in his pictures began to come to life, creating a rounded portrait of the spiritual life of the people here in the 1950s.

Huang Tse-hsiu was born in Taipei in 1930. After graduating from Taipei Teachers school, where he was interested in painting and the piano, he became a teacher, later entering the Department of Education of the Taiwan Provincial Government where he worked at promoting audiovisual education. In 1951 he took on a new job: directing a unit in charge of collecting photographs of Chinese life, customs, and scenes to be sent to UNESCO in Paris. This was his first formal contact with an organization engaged in photography work and was to prove an experience of great value in his later work writing about photography and its trends.

The many-talented Huang was next a photojournalist for Union TV, taking 16mm films for news agencies such as NHK and UP. Among his compeers, he was leader in technical advances and one of Taiwan's pioneers in color photography and color printing.

Huang's most dynamic period in photography must be considered the years between 1957, when he began turning out a stream of articles on photography as editor of Photography News, up to 1961, the year of his individual exhibition "Lung-shan Temple," and 1962, that of his two person exhibition "Yehliu." His work over this period contributed greatly to the advancement of realistic photography on Taiwan.

In his four or five years at Photography News, Huang wrote over a million words on nearly every aspect of photography and photo criticism. At the same time, his thorough grounding in the spirit and function of realistic photography inspired him in his own work of systematically photographing the subject closest to his heart: Lungshan Temple.

Huang's "Lungshan Temple" photographs are characterized by objectivity, concern, forthrightness, and realism. Unlike some photographers who thrust their personalities onto the pictures they take, Huang works from ordinary, commonplace angles unperceived by his subjects. In his pictures, the camera's existence goes practically unnoticed; he seems to live quite naturally in the temple and among the people there. Yet unlike a stiff documentary record, his photos have focuses of caring and concern, of recognition and empathy. In the groups of people gathered on the temple courtyard in the afternoon, among these chatting, napping, or praying faces, we meet some vanished yet familiar, distant yet intimate recollections from the depths of our memories.

Huang used nothing but 100 double X film in shooting the series, treating it in inadequate lighting conditions as 2000 film and developing it with D-76. This gives to the moon, clouds, and shadows of his night scenes an ambivalent, chiaroscuro effect. Similarly, the dim lighting by altar candlelight increases the aura of piety and religiosity. Finally, the grainy feel of the pictures corresponds aptly to the hardworking, simple, and frugal life of the times.

The "Lungshan Temple" exhibition attracted a good deal of attention, drawing over 10,000 visitors in the space of a week. Among the three guest books that Huang still keeps are the names of many famous artists and intellectuals of the time. The exhibition really did open a new door on realistic photography for many people and aroused their concern and attention for folk customs and religious temples.

Lungshan Temple has a long history behind it. Constructed in 1738, it was restored and rebuilt many times: in 1815 after an earthquake, in 1867 after a storm, in 1919 after destruction by termites, and in 1945 after Allied bombing. Although modifications and additions were made with each rebuilding, at the time that Huang took his pictures the temple was still distinguished for its fastidious traditional craftsmanship.

After 1960, Huang's creative work gradually diminished. The pictures he took of peaceful houses, of old Chientan, of the trails at Sanhsia, and of Taipei's dragon boat races all bring back images redolent with the past. But none of them compares in depth or concreteness of meaning with "Lungshan."

Huang Tse-hsiu believes that human thoughts and feelings should come first in photography, ahead of form. If too much attention is paid to form, the scope of the picture will be constricted at the expense of content and natural appearance.

The photographs in "Lungshan Temple" return, in fact, to the simplest and most basic idea of picture-taking: what the camera captures is what your eyes see in an ordinary standing position. You don't need elaborate planning or composition; just keep moving, observing, and noticing what you see. Stand firmly in place and transform your perceptions into a photographic record. That's the picture.

[Picture Caption]

Huang Tse-hsiu at age 30, 1960.

A Bird's-Eye View of Lungshan Temple, 1954.

(Above left) The Main Temple Courtyard at Night, 1956.

(Above right) Stone Tablet in Front of the Temple, 1955. (The characters say "Lungshan Temple.")

(Below left) Carved Beams, Painted Rafters, and the Sound of Bells and Drums, 1961.

(Below right) Summer Chat, 1961.

A Get-Together in the Winter's Sun, 1955.

Men at Rest, 1957.

Evening of the Day of Worship, 1956.

Gesture of Love, 1958.

Napping, 1956.

A Bird's-Eye View of Lungshan Temple, 1954.

（Above left） The Main Temple Courtyard at Night, 1956.

（Above right） Stone Tablet in Front of the Temple, 1955. （The characters say "Lungshan Temple."）

（Below left） Carved Beams, Painted Rafters, and the Sound of Bells and Drums, 1961.

（Below right） Summer Chat, 1961.

A Get-Together in the Winter's Sun, 1955.

Men at Rest, 1957.

Gesture of Love, 1958.

Evening of the Day of Worship, 1956.

Napping, 1956.