Shooting Film to Stay Invisible: Taipei Underground Culture

Last week, I went to Taiwan and Shanghai to shoot photos. In Taiwan, I didn’t just stay in Taipei—I also took the high-speed rail down to Tainan. I was constantly on the move, so I didn’t get a chance to send out the newsletter.

While I was in Taipei, I met a photographer named Yu Chang @yuchang106.

He originally started out as a graffiti artist (and he’s still active). When he was documenting the graffiti scene, he realized that shooting with a digital camera was risky—police could check the images on the spot. So he switched to film.

As he fell deeper into photography, he began shooting not just graffiti, but his everyday life. The photos he makes now are pure Taipei underground.

Yu Chang took a series of photos of women working in the sex industry. Looking at those images, I asked him:

“Usually it’s really hard to photograph women like this. How did you manage to shoot them?”

He answered simply:

“Because I made them happy.”

That answer made perfect sense.

People sometimes ask me the same thing when they see my photos from Kabukicho. “How did you manage to photograph people like that?”

And my answer is usually something like, “Because we did tequila shots together,” or “Because we drank together.”

Yu Chang and I shoot very different scenes, but at the core, we’re doing the same thing: we’re photographing within our own lifestyles.

And that’s the point. Each of us has a different lifestyle, and because of that, there are photos that only we can take.

I brought back as many copies of Yu Chang’s photobook from Taiwan as I could fit into my suitcase. These are signed copies and very hard to find elsewhere. Quantities are limited, so if you’re interested, make sure to check them out.

🚨 New YouTube Video

I also recently uploaded a new video on YouTube. In this one, I look back on what’s happened as I’ve continued to follow my curiosity through photography—it’s a record of my own photographic adventure.

I hope you’ll check it out.

That’s it for this week’s edition.
Thank you for reading. See you next week!

🦖 Come hang out with me on Instagram → @_nuts.tokyo_

🪐 New videos on zines & photography up on YouTube

🧃 Curious about Japanese and Asian zines? Visit FAR EAST DARKROOM.