Peasant

• Prize
• Photographer
  HSU,YEN CHUN, Taiwan

My hometown Taiwan began a series of innovations from 1950 to 1990
and got a critical success in the end. Taiwan achieved a remarkable
development at that time and won the name of “Taiwan Economic
Miracle”. The man I photographed is a peasant. His name is “Wong
Xiang” and was born in 1933, now he is 81 years old and he witness
the great era of “Taiwan Economic Miracle”. At that time Taiwan was
lack of goods and materials, but all the people never gave up and
believed that they will have a bright future. Most people who were
born at that time had tenacity, sincerity, honesty, and easygoing
personalities, and that is one of my favorite photography elements.
However, this Taiwanese spirit has slowly faded away as time goes by.
Although Wong Xiang is an old man, he still continues his work as a
peasant. His point of view is that he will not give up his job as long as
he can walk. The clothes he wore in this photo are his daily work
clothes, and his sleeves are one of the features of working class. The
red brick wall has not been sealed, which present the feature of
traditional Taiwanese style houses. When I took this picture he just
finished his work and took a rest. After he agreed to be the model of
my photo, I took this photograph.