Chang Tsai

Chang Tsai (Chinese:張才, 1916 – May 4, 1994) was a Taiwanese photographer born in Taipei's Dadaocheng district. In his youth, he was influenced by his older brother, Chang Wei-hsien (張維賢), and went to Japan to study photography.

Life Chang Tsai was born in 1916 in Taipei's Dadaocheng. He lost his father at a young age, and his elder brother, Chang Wei-Hsien, was a leader of the New Drama movement in Taiwan. In 1934, Chang followed his brother's advice and went to Japan to study photography. During his studies, he was inspired by the German Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) movement and developed an aesthetic of objective realism in his photography. In his youth, his works reflected a variety of themes, including humanism, social awareness, and cultural phenomena.

In 1936, Chang founded "Yingxin Xiecheng Studio (影心寫場)" in Dadaocheng District. In 1948, he held his first solo exhibition at Taipei's Zhongshan Hall. That same year, he won first place in a photography competition held by the Taiwan Shin Sheng Daily News (臺灣新生報) at Shanlun (沙崙), Tamsui. The photographers Deng Nan-guang and Lee Ming-tiao tied for second place, and the three of them were referred to as the "Three Musketeers of Photography (攝影三劍客)" or the "Three Fast Shutter Knights (快門三劍客)" by Huang Zexiu (黃則修), another prominent photographer.

1950s and Legacy

In the 1950s, Chang Tsai joined a field investigation of indigenous peoples with a professor of anthropology at National Taiwan University.

Chang Tsai died on May 4, 1994, at his home in Taipei. In 2014, he was named one of the "30 Most Influential Photographers in Asia" by IPA.