Chien-Chi Chang

Chien-Chi Chang during the Magnum workshop in Barcelona 2009

Chien-Chi Chang (張乾琦) is a Taiwanese photographer and member of the Magnum Photos agency.

Life

Born to working-class parents in central Taiwan in 1961, he earned his BA from Soochow University in 1984 and an MS from Indiana University in 1990. He has worked for The Seattle Times (1991-1993) and The Baltimore Sun (1994-1995). Chang has documented the life of illegal immigrants in New York's Chinatown, but he is also known for documenting his homeland of Taiwan. He won the W. Eugene Smith Fund for Humanistic Photography in 1999. He lives in Taipei and in New York City.

Notable works

His photographic work, which deals with the "abstract concepts of alienation and connection" and "draws on his own deeply divided immigrant experience," includes:

• I Do I Do I Do (published by Ivy Liu/Premier Foundation 2001): in response to his parents' pressure to marry, Chang began photographing newlywed couples in Taiwan. The work has been repeatedly described as "a jaundiced look at marriage", including images such as a couple still in their wedding garb asleep separately at the back of a limousine, and a bride picking a backdrop for her wedding photos in a field of ruins.
• The Chain (published by Trolley Books 2002): documenting inmates at the Long Fa Tang ("龍發堂" ["Temple of the Dragon"]) in Taiwan. The inmates, numbering about 700, are mentally ill patients no longer recognized by their families. The mental institution's inmates work on the island's largest chicken farm, often chained together in pairs, separated only when they sleep.

Books

• Chang, Chien-Chi (2001). I do, I do, I do. Taipei: Ivy Liu/Premier Foundation. ISBN 957-97817-2-9. 
• Chang, Chien-Chi; Lai, Cheryl (2002). The chain. London: Trolley. ISBN 0-9542079-5-5. 
• Chang, Chien-Chi; Dowling, Claudia Glenn (2005). Double happiness. New York: Aperture. ISBN 1-931788-56-1. 
• Mauro, Alessandra (2006). I grandi fotografi: Magnum Photos: Chien-Chi Chang. Milan: Hachette Fascicoli. 
• Mauro, Alessandra (2008). Les grands photographes de Magnum Photos: Chien-Chi Chang. Paris: Hachette. 
• Chang, Chien-Chi (2008). Doubleness: photography of Chang Chien-Chi. Singapore: Editions Didier Millet and National Museum of Singapore. ISBN 978-981-05-9658-3. 

See also

• Photography in Taiwan

External links

• Biography and works at Magnum website
• Short biography at W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund website (choose "1999: Chien-Chi Chang")
• Chang, Chien-Chi. Asian journey: Taiwan: a vanished place. TIME Asia, August 18—25, 2003.
• Chang, Chien-Chi. Escape from North Korea (photo gallery). National Geographic, February 2009.
• Lenzi, Iola. Chang Chien-Chi at the National Museum of Singapore. C-Arts, July 10, 2009.
• Chang, Chien-Chi. Land of shadows: as it emerges from isolation, the nation of Myanmar is caught between repression and reform, dark and light (photo gallery). National Geographic, August 2011.