The current double exhibition at the FNAC on Nanking East Road is something different from the typical rotation out of the FNAC Paris collection. Local store managers were given the authority and budget to commission their own exhibition, so they did. And if they haven't created something with the historical import of the Irving Penns and the Dorothea Langes that pass through, they have still done something pretty interesting -- yes, "pretty interesting." It's only a first try.
What's unique and what's good is that the show is half local. For a change a FNAC show takes on a special relevance to Taipei, this time by showing it through the lenses of the people who live here. Thirty framed photos (at the Nanking store -- another 30 are on display at the FNAC near the Taipei Train Station) came from the FNAC 24-hour Photo Marathon, which was open to the public for only NT$100 per entry and sent 70 teams out for a day and night of shutterbugging.
Many participants were young, and it showed in a good way. Award winners played with their subjects and their focus, sometimes both. In a couple of shots photographers put their hands into the picture frame to add some quirky emphasis to the Taipei ordinary -- framing a couple on a crosswalk or zooming in on the presidential palace tower. It was very fresh. There was also a strong eye for the graphic language of Taipei -- gas station signs, 7-11 stripes, security monitor screens, rear view mirrors, a TV kiss -- and the more common journalistic take -- a fry chef, a baby with a laptop computer, a kid with an armful of books. To see Taipei through the eyes of 16 talented amateur photographers is interesting, and that's what this exhibition achieved.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF FNAC
But it could have achieved more. What's the point in only showing 60 pictures when, by having 70 teams shoot six rolls of film each, you've just commissioned more than 15,000? It's a decision that points to some confusion in the show's goals.
What it seems like is that FNAC Taiwan wanted to make an exhibition based on the principles of Lomography, a type of photography which, according to the Lomographic Society, has an "explicit aim: to study and document the world's surface by taking millions of snapshots of it." This comes out with the other half of the exhibit, Magic Hour, which consists of four rolls of film by four outsiders, all well-known fashion photographers from other countries: Norbert Schoerner, Marcus Tomlinson, Andreas Larsson and Justin Mullins. Each was given a Lomo, which in a more specific definition is a special, highly versatile type of point-and-shoot camera, and asked to shoot a roll of film with it.
The idea was for the Taiwan locals to embark on Lomography with their Nikons and Cannons while these four European professionals provide an example with their actual Lomos, which is actually pure cultural imperialism. But even more interesting than that, the idea came from the Taiwanese FNAC staff that was in charge of the exhibition. The idea got muddled because local photographers weren't allowed the democracy of the thousands of images that purist Lomoism ordains, and that the famous Europeans were only shooting a few frames, which isn't really Lomography either.
So the exhibition is a bit confused about what it's supposed to accomplish. But on the other hand, some of the pictures are pretty good. If you're on your way to shop for a new stereo, stop off for a few minutes and check it out.
What: FNAC 24-hour Photo Marathon and Magic Hour>
Where: FNAC, B1, 337 Nanking E. Rd. Sec. 3, Taipei (
When: until Jan. 5, 2003
Feces, vomit and fossilized food from inside stomachs have provided new clues into how dinosaurs rose to dominate Earth, a new study revealed on Wednesday. Scientists have discovered plenty about dinosaurs — particularly about how they vanished off the face of the planet 66 millions years ago. But “we know very little about their rise,” said Martin Qvarnstrom, a researcher at Sweden’s Uppsala University and the study’s lead author. Dinosaurs first appeared at least 230 million years ago, fossils have shown. But they would not become the world’s dominant animal until the start of the Jurassic Period some 30 million years later. What caused this
The Mountains to Sea National Greenway (山海圳國家綠道) draws its name from the idea that each hiker starting at the summit of Jade Mountain (玉山) and following the trail to the coast is like a single raindrop. Together, many raindrops form life and prosperity-bringing waterways. Replicating a raindrop’s journey holds poetic beauty, but all hikers know that climbing is infinitely more appealing, and so this installment picks up where the last one left off — heading inland and uphill along the 49.8-kilometer Canal Trail (大圳之路) — second of the Greenway’s four sections. A detailed map of the trail can be found
“Bro, I can’t wait for my first dead body,” wrote an 11-year-old boy on Instagram in Sweden, where gangs recruit children too young to be prosecuted as contract killers on chat apps. “Stay motivated, it’ll come,” answered his 19-year-old contact. He went on to offer the child 150,000 kronor (US$13,680) to carry out a murder, as well as clothes and transport to the scene of the crime, according to a police investigation of the exchange last year in the western province of Varmland. In this case, four men aged 18 to 20 are accused of recruiting four minors aged 11 to 17
Dec 2 to Dec 8 It was the biggest heist in Taiwanese history at that time. In the afternoon of Dec. 7, 1982, two masked men armed with M16 assault rifles knocked out the driver of a United World Chinese Commercial Bank (世華銀行) security van, making away with NT$14 million (worth about NT$30 million today). The van had been parked behind a post office at Taipei’s Minsheng E Road when the robbers struck, and despite the post office being full of customers, nobody inside had noticed the brazen theft. “Criminals robbing a
RSS