Politicizing Documentary Photography: Ren Jian and Guan Xiao-rong in late 1980s Taiwan

Abstract

This essay provides a contextualised account of social documentary photography in Taiwan during the second half of the 1980s and a critical review of Ren Jian magazine within a case study of Guan Xiao-rong`s Dignity und Humiliation. The latter emerges as an exemplary documentary work on the socio-political issues of an ethnic group of indigenous Taiwanese. The essay suggests that Guan`s mixed position of documentary photographer and campaign activist made his photographs a distinctive and rare humanistic contribution with a politicised dimension.