曾敏雄
Tseng ​Miin-Shyong

風景安靜 Voice inside ( 1997 - 2022 )

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文 / 張照堂

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照片所具有的二度空間與聲音過濾特性，基本上應該是平面而安靜的，是隔一個「距離」的觀看再現。風景靜物所呈現的世界，更必然是無聲的，但實際上我們看到不少平汎、造作或俗艷的風景照，不時釋出嘰喳、嘀咕或瑣碎的訊息，一點都不安靜。

 

每一幅「風景」其實都自若、安靜地存在於它自己的特定時空，攝影者是否適時地進入它的界域或磁場，是否感知一種直覺的相互觸動，決定了對望之後的影像複製與再生。這樣的「風景」，不是因為你看見它，是它先看見你，召喚你按下快門。你只是偶然間一晃而過，它卻是久久、靜靜地倚立着，等候有心者看見。

 

初次看到曾敏雄鏡頭裡的風景，便為其中的單純的造型、細緻的質感與靜謐的氛圍所吸引。這些風景，與他之前的人像作品絕然不同。在他長年紀錄的人物攝影集裡，我們看到許多目光如炬的臉孔瞪視或遠望，許多人為的姿勢與打光，每一幅臉孔似乎都想訴說無盡的歲月情緒，直接、有力，但也略顯刻意與躁進。然而，這一批風景造像卻顯得如此自然、寧靜、致遠，有一種距離，有一種詩意與想像。

 

飄浮的煙塵、消隱的泡沫、斑剝的門牆、廢棄的鐵道、龜裂的土地、冬日的斜陽、肅靜的田野與沙灘 …… 曾敏雄的島內風景，靜默中隱含三個面向的關照：物象的質素、美學的訊息及人文的視野。 有些寂寞，有些悽愴，但愈顯真實、內在與厚重。

 

就像美國畫家Georgia O’Keeffe在新墨西哥州找到屬於她的宗教，曾敏雄追隨她的腳步到這兒找到了一種「心鏡」的嚮往。透明的穹蒼、純淨的陽光、蕭瑟的曠野、無垠的沙灘、碑墓般的教堂、曙光乍現的湖濱、恆古的石丘與城堡 …… 一如幽靈般的「遠方」( The Faraway )。何其寂寥，何其聖潔與神秘，好像返回人類誕生的原始腹地。

  

即使曾敏雄的風景裡包含的幾張人像與特寫，竟也安靜得叫人屏氣凝神。在孩童的眼神、少年八家將的擺示、老者的鬍鰓、告別式的遺照等所建構的氛圍中，彷彿進行的是一場無言的人生記憶，必須安靜，才能重重嵌印在腦海裡。

 

曾經在一篇短序中寫著：「我一直走到那寂寞的世界，四面光明，一處黑暗；四面黑暗，一處光明。在那個地方，思想與存在，獨自一人。」曾敏雄的內心風景，猶如那首他所嗜愛的修伯特名曲 --「冬之旅」一般，兀自在蕭澀的曠野中行走着，以孤寂、沉澱的心境，尋找時光的消逝跡痕，回歸歲月的永恆懷抱。  

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Voice Inside / Chang Chao-Tang
 

Two dimensional images and a voiceless attitude are characteristics of photography. It‘s a view or a presentation at a distance, so it should be flat and quiet. 

 

For the same reason, the world of landscapes and still lives must be voiceless. However, we see many normal, overdone, affected and vulgar landscape photos which chatter noisily and send a fragmentary message. They’re never quiet at all. 

 

  Every image exists in a still and self-composed space and time. Could the photographer insert himself into the image’s domain and its magnetic field? Could he be aware of a mutual touch intuitively? All of them decide what is duplicated and reproduced after looking through each other’s eyes. Such an image could not be seen; it looks at you first. It inspires you to press the shutter. You are merely a bystander passing accidentally. Nevertheless, an image is still and long-standing, waiting for an observant person to notice it. 

  

At first sight, I was attracted by the simple shape of the landscape in Tseng’s photos,   as well as its exquisite quality and quiet atmosphere. These landscape photos are absolutely different from his previous portrait photos. In Tseng’s portrait photos, there were many faces with torchlight-like wide open eyes staring at us or into the distance. There were many posed gestures and light settings. Each face seems to want to express its emotions. They were direct and strong, but also a little artificial and too hasty. In spite of this, these landscape photos are so natural, calm, and tranquil. Inside these works is a poetic imagination at a distance. 

 

Floating dust and smoke; bubbles slipping away; a dappled wall and gate; obsolete  rails; fissures in the ground; the stillness of the fields and sands… all of Tseng’s landscape photos taken on this island imply three points of view silently. The first is the fine quality of his objects and images. The second is the aesthetic messages in his photograph. The last is his humanistic view. Even though they are a bit lonely or dismal, they bring out something intrinsic, truer and more immense.   

  

Just like the American painter Georgia O’Keeffe, who found her own religion in New Mexico, Tseng followed her footsteps there to fulfill his hankering for “the mirror images of my mind.” A limpid sky, the pellucid sunshine, stagnant wastes, endless sands, the tombstone-like church, a lakeside at dawn, hills and castles from time immemorial…like ghosts they come from “The Far away.” Such silence, such holiness and mystery is like returning to our ancestors’ wombs.

   

They are so quiet that you are hardly able to breathe in front of them. It seems that a voiceless memory of life is coming to you through the gaze of a child, from the pose of young Jiajiang, in the elder’s beard, through the picture of the dead. An atmosphere is formed. We must be quiet in it’s presence to let the images imprint on our minds.

 

Once a short preface, “I walked straight toward the desolate world, in which every place was blighted but some places were dark; in which every place is absolutely dark but some places had light. In such a place, thoughts and existences are all alone.” The inner sight of Tseng must be like his favorite song Winterreise, Franz Schubert’s famous lieder, walking alone in chilly and stagnant wastes. With the solitude and disposition of his moods, he has been looking for the trails left behind space and time to send them back to the harbor of eternity.