Born in Taichung, Taiwan, Chien-Chi Chang has been a full member of Magnum Photos since 2001—the first and only Taiwanese photographer to hold this distinction. He began his career as a photojournalist before joining Magnum in 1995 and is currently based between Austria, Taiwan, and New York.
For Chang, photography is not a tool of decoration but of dissection. He does not seek to soothe, but to expose. His camera reveals the underlying fractures of contemporary life. In seminal long-term projects—The Chain, Chinatown, and Escape from North Korea—he examines alienation, displacement, and survival, distilling visual clarity from social disorder.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Chang has made ten self-financed trips to the frontlines. He now turns his lens toward Taiwan, where he sees unsettling parallels. His current project—documenting Taiwan’s civilian and military readiness—is both a personal reckoning and a timely act of witness.
Chang’s work—collected by San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, International Center of Photography, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art—has received the W. Eugene Smith Grant, Visa d’Or, World Press Photo, and The top distinctions in Taiwan’s cultural and journalistic spheres.