Abandon

At the end of 1963, Hsu Yuan-fu rethought his earlier methods of finding subjects for his photos. Previously, he had ridden his bicycle all about, hoping luck would provide material for a snapshot. But he felt that that wasted time and energy, so he came up with a new approach: "First I'd decide on a location and a theme and then set out. When I found a subject, I'd first choose a name and then shoot the photo." Thus, his work gained depth and relevance. Hsu took this photo at the Tainan train station's cargo-loading area. He found a pair of gloves that a laborer had tossed aside after work and used them to rethink his creative ideas, placing the grimy gloves on a train wheel; at a glance, the wheel rim and track seem to form the image of a cow's head. For the photographer, the abandoned gloves were a lament to the world's impermanence. In his youth, the multitalented Hsu Yuan-fu was a confident, somewhat eccentric individual, qualities that influenced his later artistic development. Not bound by convention, he put his aesthetic vision into practice, forging a unique personal style.