Born in 1952 in Taipei, Taiwan
Now lives and works in Taipei, Taiwan
Tsun-shing Cheng received his Ph.D. from École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. He is the founder of Flâneur Culture Lab, and taught at the National Tsing Hua University for more than 20 years. Cheng was the recipient of Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Officier) in 2012. He continues to labor in the field of aesthetics, philosophy, psychoanalysis, and visual discourse, and works as a photographer, art critic, writer, and film director.
His book Melencolia Document published in 1992 blazed a trail for the art circle, and has since then influenced the aesthetic thought in Taiwan. His writings and images are tinctured with wit and a personal perspective on aesthetics, values, and worldviews of the times. Photography, for Cheng, is his life’s work. While digital images come in tidal waves, mimicking how traditional images are produced by means of signal transfer and pixel storage, his adherence to the silver halide process, where the material nature of light imaging is irreversible, propels a practice that attests to the nucleus of photography.
Cheng has exhibited internationally. His solo exhibitions include Pardon: Color (TKG+, Taipei, Taiwan, 2024); Tsun-shing Cheng Photography Exhibition (TKG+, Taipei, Taiwan, 2020); Firefly and Light (Long Museum, Shanghai, China, 2019); Won’t Somebody Bring the Light (China Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum, Beijing; Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China, 2015). He has also participated in group exhibitions, including Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival (Jimei Art Centre, Xiamen, China, 2023); Looking Back — Taiwanese Photographers’ Island Gazes 1970s–1990s ( National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan; Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts, Yamanashi, Japan, 2018); 3rd Guangzhou Photo Biennial (Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China, 2009).