The impact of Tan Cheng DongĄ¯s work may not be immediately apparent to the casual
observer; but anybody willing to invest a little patience and observation will be rewarded with images of uncommon impact, elegance and subtlety.
Ironically, it is fairly easy to stand in front of beauty or tragedy and make compelling
photographs. The impact of the photographs is directly linked to the compelling nature of the subject matter. And sometimes photographs should not be more than that. The hand and ego of the photographer should not be apparent. That is often a characteristic of good photojournalism. But the intention of this work is different. It is not a simple record of the world or events; it is a poetic interpretation. Just as in a traditional poem, the impact here depends on a mating of structure and content. Clever structure by itself is empty formalism and runs the risk of being boring in addition to ethically suspect. But compelling content supported and enhanced by intelligent structure becomes powerful stuff.
The panoramic format is not the easiest to master. All that empty space that has to be filled in a way that makes sense. It is not really possible to imagine Tan Cheng DongĄ¯s work in anything but a panoramic sweep. The work needs room to breathe! Tan Cheng Dong takes advantage of the elongated shape to make comparisons between foreground and background, between left and right. The work takes on the nature of dialectic. Fact interacting with fact to suggest new conclusions. It is a delicate balancing act to successfully fit all of this together, time after time. Tan Cheng Dong never takes the easy path. He never simply records his subjects. His images are always a complex interaction of light and dark, line, space and atmosphere. Take a look at the Unhappy Clowns. Anybody could have seen the eccentricity and irony of sad clowns in a Metro station. But this image is much richer and powerful because of the comparison between foreground and background in the arrangement of the clowns themselves. Near/far comparisons animate the surface of images and make the images more lively and pleasing to the eye. The eye likes depth. In addition the converging lines of the Metro train on the right accentuate the feeling of depth and force the eye back to the clowns. The bright values of the clown faces exist in comparison to the shadows and hooded figures in the background. There is a neat ironic relationship between the literally hooded figures in the background and the symbolically hidden features of the foreground clowns. There are a lot of things going on here. Tan Cheng Dong makes it all work in the chaos of a busy Metro Station. It is quite a balancing act.
One cannot help but wonder if the decision to work in B/W and the austere nature of Tan Cheng DongĄ¯s chosen subjects has anything to do with the reactions of someone in a new, large and strange country. Not to mention a very cold country for a significant portion of the year. Even colder and stranger for a newcomer.? It will be interesting to see if the emotional content of the work shifts as Tan Cheng Dong becomes more comfortable in Canada. The old struggle for artists. The struggle between the advantages of comfort and familiarity and the energizing impact of the new and unfamiliar.
Roy Hartling
Montreal, Canada
September 7, 2006
