TAIPEI.- The Taipei Fine Arts Museum opened the exhibit Fleeting Shadows - The Photography of Lo Hsiang- lin. Lo Hsiang-lin (1895-1977) was a classically educated scholar, an able poet, writer, calligrapher and painter who also studied rock and mineral formations. He took up photography at the age of 60 out of the need to maintain a visual record of the sights for a gazette of Hualien County he was compiling. He continued to be an active photographer for more than 20 years thereafter. Lo´s photography taps into the creative technique and aesthetic composition of ink painting. The subject matter may be Taiwan scenery but the effect is strongly redolent of a Chinese ink painting. Lo also frequently retouched and colorized his photos, composing verse to accompany them, resulting in artistic works combining photography, poetry and painting.

This is the first formal and complete public exhibition in Taiwan to exclusively focus on the photographic works of Lo Hsiang-lin. Works included span from the 50s through the 70s and offer a glimpse through Lo´s lens of the sights of Hualien, his photographic ideas on incorporating ink painting, his continually experimental nature and endless quest for the sights of Taiwan. Lo´s elegant and moving images transport us back to an earlier life on Taiwan as we rediscover this outstanding talent formerly obscured by the tide of history.