Ch'en Shih-an's pictures of the past seem to take us back to that distant, long-ago homeland deep in our memories. Their warmth and intimacy make us feel once again the value of the simple and the pure and breathe once more the fresh air of the genuine.
An elementary school teacher for over thirty years, Ch'en Shih-an has used photography as a means of pursuing truth and goodness. Because of his hobby he passed up several chances for promotion to director or principal, since he feared that the administrative duties would prevent him from pursuing his heart's desire. Quiet, easygoing, hardworking, unpretentious--Chen's career like his personality, is naturally reflected in his works.
Ch'en was born in Taichung in 1930. He became interested in photography at the age of eighteen or nineteen when he began helping out in a relative's photo studio. He still recalls saving up pocket money to buy his first camera, secondhand.
In 1948 he decided to pursue teaching as a career and entered the local teachers' college. Since graduating, he taught at elementary schools in Wufeng and later in Taichung for 35 years.
In 1953 he bought a new camera with an extensible lens and began taking realistic pictures with fellow photography buffs. He says that he learned a lot from Ch'en Keng-pin and Lin Ch'uan-chu, two Taichung photographers some ten years his elders. It was Ch'en Keng-pin who encouraged him to take pictures of the people around him and record a way of life that was gradually disappearing.
Ch'en Shih-an focuses his lens on the common people at work and at leisure, especially on children and the elderly. As with other photographers of the 1950's and 1960's, young people rarely appear in his pictures. There are several reasons for this. One is that many of them had left the countryside to work in the city, and another is that children and old people act more naturally before a camera. More importantly, photographers of the time lacked the conception of social reportage, and their subjects tended to lean toward what they were most familiar with and what was most easily communicable.
Ch'en's concept of photography seems quite similar to Ozu Yasujiro's philosophy of cinema: using a closely attentive attitude to express restrained beauty. Pictures such as "Country Schoolkids," "Children Playing in the River," "Leading Home," and "Spring Planting" quietly capture ordinary yet moving childhood scenes, their realism suffused with poetry.
In "The Old Oxherd" and "Granddad Tells a Story" we can sense how the pipes that the old people of the time were accustomed to smoking kept them company in their old age. Ozu once said, "Just what is personality? Simply put, it's the flavor of a person's conditions. If you can't express the flavor of a person's conditions, your work is all in vain; this is the purpose of all art." Although he was talking about the cinema, his comments are equally applicable to the other "film" medium. The photographer's mission is, with sober, patient observation, avoiding either artifice or sentimentality, to capture the flavor of man's condition. In the old oxherd, the old storyteller, and the two old men out for a walk, we can perceive just this flavor, this quality of temperament, in the common individual.
"Out for a Walk" vividly illustrates what Ozu calls "the flavor of people's conditions." The main subjects are two old men strolling along the Pitan embankment in Hsintien, their faces each revealing the traces of time. Behind them are several groups in activity: a father and son working in wood, a family chatting by the wall, a couple of children walking along the wall, and several other figures in the distance. The line of the embankment cutting across the picture adds depth and geometrical interest. The mixture of near and far, of large and small, creates a rich composition. Ch'en stood on an overhanging bridge to seize just the right moment and angle to take this photo, a vivid portrait of a scene of leisure from the life of the common people in the 1960's. The people and the scene are gone, but the whole photo exudes Ch'en's warm and sincere feeling for life.
Besides warmth, childlike innocence and a sense of humor often appear in Ch'en's works. "The Kindergarteners' Field Trip" was shot on a school outing to the zoo. The elephant, the little children, and the gesturing photographer, enlivened by the expressions and postures of the onlookers, form an interesting composition, creating something more than a simple souvenir.
"Self-Timer" reveals the photographer's wise sense of humor. A chance occurrence, the clear and simple composition, the arrangement of light and shadow, and the patient waiting combine to comic effect. What makes us smile is seeing the five men in Western suits and leather shoes seemingly controlled by a tiny automatic device: man manipulated by machine, instead of the other way around.
Ch'en stresses the importance in photography of "darkroom work." He believes that photographers should experience the "joy" of darkroom work themselves instead of leaving it to others. "You don't know how to shoot a picture unless you know how to develop it," he says. "Feeling a sense of achievement involves both shooting a photo and developing it so as to bring out the image."
In recent years, Ch'en was responsible for making videotapes in his school's audiovisual department. Long-term eyestrain and overstimulation from the light led to detachment of the retina. His vision no longer what it was, he has switched to taking color photos with a large-scale camera since retiring this year.
When we look back on Ch'en's photographic records of the 1960's, we see some lovely, unforgettable fragments from days gone by. These traces of the past bring us both inconsolable longing and fond recollection.
[Picture Caption]
Ch'en Shih-an at age 27, 1957.
Leading Home, 1968.
Country Schoolkids, 1959.
A Group at Play, 1967.
Children Playing in the River, 1959.
Granddad Tells a Story, 1967.
Out for a Walk, 1965.
The Old Oxherd, 1960.
Spring Planting, 1966.
Self-Timer, 1968.
The Kindergarteners' Field Trip, 1959.
Country Schoolkids, 1959.
Children Playing in the River, 1959.
Granddad Tells a Story, 1967.
The Kindergarteners' Field Trip, 1959.
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