Chien-Chi Chang (born 1961) is a Taiwanese photographer and member of the Magnum Photos agency. Born to working-class parents in central Taiwan, he earned his BA from Soochow (Suzhou) University in 1984 and an MS from Indiana University in 1990. His previous employments were at the Seattle Times (1991-1993) and Baltimore Sun (1994-1995). He had documented life of illegal immigrant in American Chinatowns and life in Taiwan. He won the W. Eugene Smith Fund for Humanistic Photography in 1999.

Notable works

• The chain (2002) : documenting inmates at the Long Fa Tang ("Temple of the Dragon") in Taiwan, numbering about 600 are mentally ill patients no longer recognized by their families. They work on the island's largest chicken farm, and chained together in pairs most of the day, only separated while sleeping.
• I do I do I do (2002) : in response to his parents' pressure to marry, Chang photograph marrying couples in Taiwan. The work has been repeatedly described as "a jaundiced look at marriage", showing images such as a couple still in their wedding garb asleep separately at the back of a limousine, and a bride picking a backdrop for her wedding photos in a field of ruins.

Inspiration

From Magnum : "Chien-Chi Chang has always been fascinated by the human conditions of alienation and connection.[...] This meditation on the nature of the ties that bind a person to others and to society is a natural outgrowth of Chang's own experience of the divided life of an immigrant."

External links

• Biography and works at Magnum website
• Short biography at Smith Fund website