A Taipei-based professional wedding photographer is leading a volunteer effort to make graduation photography and yearbooks available to remote and underfunded elementary schools, most of which serve Aboriginal communities.
Yang Wen-yi (楊文逸), whose landscape photographs of Penghu have been showcased by the Penghu County Government in an exhibition, launched the project last year to help schools that cannot afford to hire professional photographers.
“My motive is simple — to use my professional skills to do something for society,” he said.
Photo provided by Yang Wen-yi VIA CNA
One of the projects that Yang’s team of volunteers undertook last year was with Mudan Elementary School in Pingtung County’s Mudan Township (牡丹), a small school attended primarily by Paiwan Aborigines, with a graduating class of eight students, he said.
The schoolchildren were very excited during the photo shoot, wearing their Paiwan costumes and posing freely for the camera, Yang said.
When he proposed putting the photographs together and publishing a yearbook, the children became very excited, with one asking: “Are we really going to have yearbooks?”
Yang recalled that when he talked about the project to the principal at Taian Elementary School in Miaoli County, the school official told him he was happy to hear about the volunteer effort, because it had been 10 years since the school had a photographer at its graduation event.
“This is the kind of work that I want to do. City students think their graduation photographs are nothing special, but for children living in the mountains, it is just a dream,” Yang said. “I am helping them put their childhood memories in print.”
So far this year, Yang’s volunteer team has provided photography services to four elementary schools: Wunshuei, Taising and Cingan in Miaoli County, and Longshou in Taoyuan.
The volunteers are to take graduation photos at three more schools this month: Haibao and Taian in Miaoli County and Mudan.
Yang said he and his team try their best to create yearbooks that the children want, as he called on more professional photographers, hobbyists and drivers to volunteer for the project.
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
‘SAME OLD TRICK’: Even if Beijing resumes individual travel to Taiwan, it would only benefit Chinese tourism companies, the Economic Democracy Union convener said China’s 10 new “incentives” are “sugar-coated poison,” an official said yesterday, adding that Taiwanese businesses see them clearly for what they are, but that Beijing would inevitably find some local collaborators to try to drums up support. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, made the remark ahead of a news conference the General Chamber of Commerce is to hold today. The event, titled “Industry Perspectives on China’s Recent Pro-Taiwan Policies,” is expected to include representatives from industry associations — such as those in travel, hotels, food and agriculture — to request the government cooperate with China’s new measures, people familiar with
RSS