At Death's Door

Hsu Yuan-fu took the photo at a funeral service, cropping it so that the three mourners fill the frame. The man collapsed in tears on the ground, overcome with grief, is the main subject. Hsu focused on the man's distended facial muscles, snapping the photo just as two relatives are raising him to his feet, giving the work a slightly blurry quality, a sense of movement that augments the photo's funereal mood. The 1960s was the golden age of "photography confluence" in Taiwan, with groups popping up all over the island. At the time, Hsu Yuan-fu had been submitting to monthly photography contests held by Japanese magazine for many years. To achieve his goal of winning an annual championship, he took pictures at marriages, funerals, and festive events. His stylistic innovations planted the roots of Taiwanese photorealism, moving away from "salon photography," another international style, and had a significant impact on later generations of photographers.?Parting Forever?took third place in Japan's Photo Art Photography Competition.