Gallery
BIoGRAPHY
Chien-Chi Chang manifests in his work the abstract concepts of alienation and connection. “The Chain,” a collection of portraits made in a Buddhist psychiatric institution in Taiwan, caused a sensation when it was shown at La Biennale di Venezia (2001) and the Bienal de Sao Paolo (2002). The shocking, nearly life-sized photographs of pairs of patients literally chained together resonate with Chang’s jaundiced look at the less visible bonds of marriage. He has treated marital ties in two books, I do I do I do (2001), a collection of images depicting alienated grooms and brides in Taiwan, and Double Happiness (2005), a brutal depiction of the business of selling brides in Vietnam.
The ties of family and of culture are also the themes of an ambitious project begun in 1992. For 21 years, Chang photographed and filmed the bifurcated lives of Chinese immigrants in New York’s Chinatown, along with those of their wives and families back home in Fujian. China Town was hung at the National Museum of Singapore in 2008 as part of a mid-career survey and at La Biennale di Venezia (2011) as well as at the International Center of Photography, New York (2012). Chang’s investigation of the ties that bind one person to another draws on his own deeply divided immigration experience in the United States.
Chang joined Magnum Photos in 1995 and was elected as a full member in 2001. He lives in Graz, Austria. A major retrospective of Chang’s work will be featured at the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts in 2026.
The ties of family and of culture are also the themes of an ambitious project begun in 1992. For 21 years, Chang photographed and filmed the bifurcated lives of Chinese immigrants in New York’s Chinatown, along with those of their wives and families back home in Fujian. China Town was hung at the National Museum of Singapore in 2008 as part of a mid-career survey and at La Biennale di Venezia (2011) as well as at the International Center of Photography, New York (2012). Chang’s investigation of the ties that bind one person to another draws on his own deeply divided immigration experience in the United States.
Chang joined Magnum Photos in 1995 and was elected as a full member in 2001. He lives in Graz, Austria. A major retrospective of Chang’s work will be featured at the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts in 2026.
AWARDS | Recognitions
2022 The Foundation for Excellent Journalism Special Contribution Award, Taiwan
2021 TECO Humanities lifetime achievement award, Taiwan
1998 First Place, Daily Life, World Press Photo, Amsterdam
1998 Visa d’Or, Visa Pour L’image, Perpignan, France
1998 Magazine Photographer of the Year, NPPA, USA
1999 W. Eugene Smith Grant, W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund for Humanistic Photography, USA
2003 First Place, Best Photography Book (The Chain), Pictures of the Year International, USA
selected exhibitions
2018 Interior Lives, Museum of the City of New York, New York
2018 Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea
2018 The Cube Space Project, Taipei, Taiwan
2018 Chi-Wen Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
2013 National Taipei University of Education, Taipei, Taiwan
2018 Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea
2018 The Cube Space Project, Taipei, Taiwan
2018 Chi-Wen Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
2013 National Taipei University of Education, Taipei, Taiwan
2013 Museum of Contemporary Arts, Taipei, Taiwan
2012 International Center of Photography, New York City, USA
2012 Chi-Wen Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
2012 The Cube Project Space, Taipei, Taiwan
2011 Museum of Cultures, Basel, Switzerland
2009 Foreign Affairs, Venice Biennial, Venice, Italy
2009 National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan
2008 National Museum of Singapore, Singapore
2006 The Chain, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, USA
2004 Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona Beach, Florida, USA
2004 The Chain, Ffotogallery, Cardiff, Wales
2004 The Chain, Ffotogallery, Cardiff, Wales
2002 São Paulo Biennial, São Paulo, Brazil
2001 Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
2001 Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
1999 The Alternative Museum, New York City, USA
Selected publications
2015 Jet Lag (Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, Germany)
2008 Doubleness: Photography of Chang Chien-Chi (Editions Didier Millet and National Museum of Singapore, Singapore)
2008 Les Grands Photographe de Magnum Photos: Chien-Chi Chang (Hachette, France)
2005 Double Happiness (Aperture, USA)
2002 The Chain (Trolley, UK)
2001 I do I do I do (Premier Foundation, Taiwan)
2001 The Chain: Photographs by Chien-Chi Chang (Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan)
video works
2017 AZMA
2017 Burma: The Promise Betrayed
2017 The War That Never Was
2014 Thalerhof
2014 On The Road
2014 Side Chain
2011 China Town
2011 Bongo Fever
2011 Burmese Days
2009 Escape from North Korea
2007 Empty Orchestra
