Born in 1943 in Banqiao, New Taipei, and passing away in 2024, Chang Chao-Tang was the most influential pioneer and leader of contemporary photography and image art in Taiwan. During his studies at National Taiwan University in the 1960s, he stunned the art world with a modernist photographic style, infusing images with elements of Western existentialism, surrealism, and the Theater of the Absurd, thereby breaking the constraints of traditional realism. His early works often utilized fragmented figures, hallucinatory landscapes, and a detached perspective to profoundly metaphorize the collective suppression and individual alienation during Taiwan’s martial law era. Beyond photography, his contributions to documentary filmmaking were equally significant, earning him prestigious Golden Horse and Golden Bell Awards, alongside his monumental work in promoting documentary photography and preserving Taiwan's visual history.

Chang’s artistic achievements were honored with the National Award for Arts (1999), the National Cultural Award (2011), and a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Golden Horse Awards (2022). His works are held in the permanent collections of major institutions worldwide, including the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, and the Shanghai Art Museum. His unique visual vocabulary not only captured half a century of Taiwan’s social transformation but also established an eternal humanistic landscape through the interplay of philosophical depth and the artistic gaze.