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Vice minister has eye for the light

Vice Defense Minister Lin Chong-pin smiles as he opens his first individual photographic exhibition at Jazz Gallery in Taipei yesterday. Lin will sell the photographs on display, with proceeds being donated to charity organizations. PHOTO: CHU PEI-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES

"It is more appropriate to view cross-strait relations with the panoramic lens of Ansel Adams than the magnifying glass of Sherlock Holmes," Lin Chong-pin (林中斌) once quipped, in his former capacity as spokesman for the Mainland Affairs Council.

The comment was not just a reflection of the vice defense minister's approach to the nation's torturous relationship with China, but also of his love for photography.

Lin is a fine amateur photographer, and yesterday he opened his first photography exhibition at Jazz Gallery (爵士畫廊).

The exhibition features 35 photographs taken locally and in countries such as China, Japan, the US and the UK over a span of 30 years.

One featured photograph is entitled This Old Man, which won first prize in the portraiture division in a contest held by the National Industrial Recreation Association in New York in 1977.

The photograph shows an old man with a stern appearance sitting on a stone bench in a park. One reviewer said that Lin's photography had adopted a lighting technique similar to that of the painter Rembrandt.

Another prize-winning photograph, entitled Daybreak, shows the stunningly beautiful first rays of dawn at Montana's Glacier National Park in the US.

The exhibition, entitled "The Longest Journey is the Journey Inward," reflects Lin's inner world.

Lin said that the exhibition's name came from a quote from the book The Markings by the former Secretary-General of the UN, Dag Hammarskjold, who hiked the Himalayas. Lin was also fond of Robert Frost's poetry, especially Frost's famous lines, "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I ... I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."

The exhibition started yesterday and will continue until Dec. 14. The gallery is at 431, Pate Rd. Sec. 2 in Taipei, and is open from 10am to 6pm daily.
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