VOP ISSUE 16 : ABANDONED SPACES

Derelict spaces are a visual landscape, a recurring image, and an aesthetic symbol. They represent emptiness, history, memory, desolation, regeneration, and a complex array of other concepts. As human society becomes entangled in an endless cycle of demolition and construction, and increasingly, "pending demolition" and "pending construction," silent, uninhabited spaces begin to murmur in images, compelling us to consider the organic materiality of derelict spaces and their relationship with the control of political power.

In this issue of Voice of Photography, Tomoko Yoneda explores Japanese houses built during the Japanese colonial period in Taiwan that are now derelict, tracing the ebb and flow of historical transitions. Liu Chi-chung surveys the urban-rural ruins of Hong Kong, documenting the wilderness of civilization covered in green moss. Chen Po-i investigates military dependents' villages in Taiwan before their demolition, searching for the scattered traces left behind in these abandoned spaces. Additionally, this issue features Japanese photography critic Akira Torihara, who introduces the genealogy of Japanese ruin photography, starting from the 17th-century Old Edo Castle Photo Album. Chinese photography critic Gu Zheng deconstructs the modernity of ruin images using scholar Gennifer Weisenfeld's discourse on disaster aesthetics. Furthermore, Taiwanese senior film critic Li You-ying-wu-an-chun, who claims to "live in ruins" himself, enumerates various ruined scenes in films.

To conduct this issue's thematic dialogue, under the guidance of artist Kao Jun-honn, we, along with writer Ruan Ching-yueh and artist Yao Jui-chung, trespassed into the long-abandoned "Ankang Reception Room" in the suburbs of Xindian, Taipei—a derelict building where the government detained and tortured political dissidents and "bandits" in the 1970s until its disbandment after martial law was lifted in 1987. In the empty, dim auditorium of the detention center, (at the risk of contracting dengue fever) the three engaged in a dialogue about ruins, dissecting the latent power and desire within dysfunctional spaces.

Moreover, while producing this issue, we learned of the passing of Japanese photographer and photography theorist Takuma Nakahira and felt a profound sense of sorrow. Photography critic Akiko Otake, who knew Mr. Nakahira, accepted our invitation to contribute an article in this issue in memory of this photographic philosopher who constantly challenged people's photographic thinking. We also included Nakahira's essay from the famous For a Language to Come, describing burning his negatives by the sea, as well as precious photographs taken by photographer Terutaka Hashimoto in 1971 when Nakahira attended the Paris Biennial des Jeunes, paying tribute and farewell to Mr. Takuma Nakahira.