The Tua-Tiu-Tian Internationl Festival of Arts (大稻埕國際藝術節) officially opened on Sunday, October 1st with an action-packed month of events which aims to not only showcase and promote the historic Dadaocheng area of Taipei, but also display many of the artistic talents that both Taipei and Taiwan have to offer to the world.

The month of events kicked off with the opening of the Dadaocheng International Photography Exhibition (外籍攝影師鏡頭下的大稻埕) which featured the work of both local and expat photographers and will remain on display for the entirely of the festival.

As I mentioned in my previous post about the Dadaocheng Photowalks, the photo exhibition had a focus on documentarian street photography-style photos that would help tell the story of the residents of Dadaocheng, the history of the area and also its revitalization over recent years.

To that effect, the curator of the event TC Lin organized several photowalks in August and September which led both foreign and local photographers around Dadaocheng to get shots to contribute to the event, network with each other and learn about the area.

The photowalks that TC arranged led us around most popular and well-known areas of Dihua Street (迪化街) but also much further down the road into areas that are not as commonly visited by tourists as well as areas that are only just recently starting to receive a bit of attention in terms of revitalization.

The first photowalk was more of an introduction to the event and a bit of a tour around the area for people who were unfamiliar while the second walk was more of us just walking around, taking cover from torrential downpours, chatting and taking photos.

As I mentioned in my previous blog about the photowalks, I typically spend most of my time at these events chatting with friends I haven’t seen for a while, so in order to get enough photos to submit to the event, I did a solo photowalk around the area in conjunction with a visit to the famous Dadaocheng Wharf on a day that turned out to have one of the prettiest sunsets of the year.

The exhibition opened last Sunday and attracted quite a few visitors as well as most of the photographers who took part in the event. It was a wonderful afternoon spent enjoying the company of friends new and old and enjoying the different perspectives of Dadaocheng that were put on display by photographers from all over the world.

Split up into two different venues including URS127 Art Factory (URS127玩藝工場) and URS27W Film Range (URS27W城市影像實驗室), the exhibition which will run for the entire month is open to the public free of charge.

A few days earlier TC contacted me and requested that I say a few words to the crowd about the event - At first I was a bit apprehensive due to how much I embarrassed myself at my solo photo exhibition a month or so earlier but ultimately agreed and did my best not to embarrass myself too much. Fortunately I’ve spent quite a bit of time researching the Dadaocheng area for my blogs about the City God Temple, Bao-An Temple, and the last few years of visiting the annual Dihua Street Lunar New Year Market.

In the gallery below, I’m sharing some of my photos that were featured at the exhibition with the original and an iPhone shot of the photo on the wall. With all the talent involved in the event I was both surprised and honoured that so many of my photos were chosen to be featured in both venues of the exhibition.

I want to thank TC Lin, Chenbl Chen and all the organizers of the Tua-Tiu-Tiann International Festival of Arts who put together this event. I also want to thank the friends who came out to support us - especially those people who have followed my work for a while but haven’t had a chance to meet!

I'd also like to show my appreciation to some of the other photographers who took part in the event and contributed their work and vision to the event. Quite a few of those photographers are my friends, so if you'd like to know more about them, you may want to check out the following people: Darren Melrose, Brian Wiemer, Neil Wade, Dilip Bhoye, Filipe Rios, Tyson Skriver and Ken Dickson.

The exhibition will be on until the end of October, so if you are in Taipei and have any free time, you should definitely head over to check out the exhibition spaces as well as taking part in some of the great events planned over the next month!

Exhibition Period: 10/01 ~ 10/31 (展出日期:10/01 ~ 10/31)

Main Exhibition: URS127 Art Factory ( #127, Dihua Street. Section 1. Taipei)

主展場：URS127玩藝工場 - 台北市迪化街一段127號

Secondary Exhibition: URS 27W Film Range (#27, Yan-Ping Road. Section 2. Taipei)

展場二：URS 27W 城市影像實驗室 - 台北市延平北路二段27號

Tua-Tiu-Tiann International Festival of Arts: Website | Facebook | Event Schedule

A photowalk is a networking event for photographers and people who enjoy photography to get out with their camera, meet some new people, learn some new techniques and take some cool photos at the same time. Photowalks are usually held by camera clubs and the people who show up tend to be a mixture of both professional and amateur alike which means that you get a nice mix of experience and skill sets during these events.

Photowalks also act a educational tool for photographers to learn about different areas of photography and are also a great way for people who spend way too much of their time in front of their computer messing around in photoshop to get out shooting and meeting new people.

For myself, going on a photowalk tends to be more of a relaxing day with my camera where I worry less about the results and focus more on having fun and meeting new friends.

I've been part of a community of local photographers on Facebook for a while now and I've met some pretty good friends from the Photowalkers group. The group leader, Billy plans events every month or so in different locations and a group of us (Taiwanese and expats) will go out, take photos, chat and have dinner together when we're done. We also join up with the InstaMeet Taiwan group on certain occasions and have some fun critique sessions from time to time.

Most of the photowalks are held in Taipei or around New Taipei City, but this time our photowalk was planned by a fellow Canadian expat living in Hsinchu and it got all of the regulars outside of Taipei and into some new territory for some new experiences. Tyson, the organizer of the event planned the event well in advance and it generated quite a bit of interest (even showing up in the Taipei Times a few days before) and looked like it was going to be one of our biggest photowalks yet!

Hsinchu is one of my favourite cities in Taiwan and is actually closer to home than Taipei is - The city is a great one to visit and it has a lot of history visible on its streets in the downtown core. Tyson planned the event with a very detailed schedule of where we would visit and the route we would take. The route that was scheduled is pretty much the same route that I take almost every time I visit the city so I was more than happy to join up and show some of my photowalker friends around. I think he did a great job showcasing the city to the people who were probably experiencing it for the first time!

The photowalk ended up being one of the largest ones we've had and it was quite successful despite it being the hottest day so far this year. I had a great time, took some nice photos, had some good food and spent the day with friends. That's a pretty good day if you ask me!

I'm going to split up some of the shots I took in a couple of different sections - but before I do, if you are in Taiwan and are at all interested in this kind of event, or just hanging out and meeting new friends - make sure to join the Photowalkers group on Facebook. The people in the group are all incredible, funny and easy to get along with

Street Photos

I've probably mentioned a hundred times on this blog how much I aspire to be a somewhat competent street photographer - Street photography isn't easy and you have to be in the moment a lot of the time with an eye that is skilled at catching things as well as having a pretty good imagination. Hsinchu is one of the best cities in Taiwan for street work and my plan for the day was actually just to get street shots. I came out with some pretty interesting shots and I was quite pleased with them. I particularly love the photo below of the seamstress sitting in her shop, wearing one of the dresses she made while one of her other dresses is on display in the window. To be a successful street photographer you have to be good at combining candid shots of people in their environment as well as something else to make the shot interesting and I think I got some good results that day!

Temple Festival Shots

Coincidentally the day of our photowalk was the same as a small temple event happening at the Hsinchu City God temple (城隍廟). The temple is the headquarters of all the City God temples in Taiwan and on the day we were having our photowalk, followers from another temple had come to to pay homage and seek a blessing from the City God. This type of event is common with Taoist temples in Taiwan and on that day there was a large procession that featured lion dances, firecrackers, music and the always cool-looking Eight Immortals (八家將). This is my kind of thing so I spent quite a bit of time taking shots of the event and got some pretty good shots of what was going on. I noted on Facebook a few days ago that we sometimes have these pre-conditioned attitudes towards people over here in Taiwan - when we see guys with dark skin filled with tattoos, chewing betel nut and smoking cigarettes we often assume that they might be dangerous, but in most cases, especially with these temple festivals the people are always kind and are more than willing to share their culture with you. The Eight Immortals are supposed to be somewhat scary-looking and imposing figures from the underworld carrying weapons used for torture, however the guys cracked a smile and waved at me as I was standing next to them taking their photo.

That's it for today - I hope you like the shots. If you have any questions about photowalks, the group or the photos, comment below and I'll get back to you.

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