In the Shape of a Cow

As he did in 1964's Shoulder, Hsu Yuan-fu took a close-up of only part of his subject, capturing the highly contrastive effect produced by light cast laterally on a cow's rump, creating a scene guaranteed to trigger viewers' imaginations. Some might see it as an alien planet's landscape; to others, it may appear to be a tangle of climbing vines, a tree's root vines. In any case, the abstract composition merits careful appreciation, a hallmark of Hsu's unique aesthetic philosophy. Shot in 1963 under an ironwood tree in Shiertian in Tainan's Annan district, the work was a designated special selection in Japan's Minolta International Photography Competition. Educator, photographer, and documentarian Chang Chao-tang said this of Hsu's photography: "Aside from imagery, the overlapping of concrete and abstract and the interplay of form and spirit are what make his work so compelling.