Taipei, April 12 (CNA) “The Eye of Abstraction,” a photography exhibition featuring 99 abstract artworks by 25 seasoned Taiwanese photographers, opened on Wednesday at the National Center of Photography and Images (NCPI) in Taipei.

The exhibition brings together abstract works by Taiwanese photographers over the years in the hope of establishing a theoretical framework for the genre of Taiwanese photography, which has been dominated by photojournalism and documentary photography, exhibition curator Chang Kuan-ho (章光和) said at the exhibition’s opening ceremony.

The exhibition is divided into four sections: “Figurative and Non-Figurative, “Sense and Sensibility,” “Gestalt” and “Material Mediums,” Chang said.

“Figurative and Non-Figurative” features works by photographers showcasing “unexpected beauty” in everyday life captured at unique angles, Chang said.

“Sense and Sensibility” juxtaposes artworks by renowned Taiwanese abstract painters and abstract photos taken by photographers, and asks viewers to compare the two art forms, Chang said.

“Gestalt” showcases photography that explores Gestalt psychology, proposed by psychologist Max Wertheimer in 1912. This holds that when people see images they do not understand they spontaneously appeal to the laws of symmetry, closure, continuity, proximity, similarity, and figure-ground organization — the ability to identify a figure from the background, Chang said.

His “Botany 0.5” on display at the exhibition is a collection of images created by tapping into Gestalt psychology, Chang said.

The images are created by scanning slices of plants and compiling them in computer software to create continuous left-right and up-down symmetrical images that present a kaleidoscopic effect, Chang said.

Meanwhile, “Material Mediums” focuses on materials and mediums used in photography and explores their intrinsic beauty, Chang said.

National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts Director Liao Jen-I (廖仁義) said that the museum was tasked with creating the NCPI, which opened in April 2021.

However, the vision of Taiwanese photographers more than a decade ago to establish a Taiwan museum of photography and images has not yet been realized, Liao said.

The boundless creativity demonstrated by Taiwanese photographers shows that they deserve a museum dedicated to photography, Liao said, calling on Deputy Cultural Minister Sue Wang (王時思), who also attended the opening ceremony, to lobby for funding from the Ministry of Cultural to make such a museum a reality.

Wang said in response that the output by the many Taiwanese photographers calls for a larger venue than the NCPI to be established.

The creation of a Taiwan museum of photography and images is a high priority for Culture Minister Shih Che (史哲) and herself, Wang said, adding that she hopes the goal can be achieved as soon as possible.

Photographers have a special mission, one that highlights things often neglected in the world and defines what the world looks like to humankind, Wang said.

Mere mortals cannot know the truth about the universe, but they can attempt to determine what the universe is like through photographers’ eyes, Wang said.

One philosophical theory posits that nothing happens by accident, and everything happens by the design of the universe, Wang added.

The photographs on display could support that theory, as they seem to have been captured by coincidence but actually offer people glimpses into what the future holds, Wang said.

Wang invited the public to visit the exhibition and get to know the Taiwanese photographers who serve as a vanguard observing the world, Wang said.

The free exhibition runs until July 30.