Vinci Weng

I studied photography from various studio-based courses at art and design schools in Taiwan and the UK. In my pursuit of art photography, I started as a personal challenge to explore how much further the image-making can be created. Therefore, ‘seeing, exploring and knowing’ was the principal reference to the context of subject-matter in my early photograph.

I took first shot of dramatic skyline for a beautiful sunset landscape in the summer.

I have been using Nikon Z7 body with Nikkor lenses, and Leica digital camera sometime as my main equipment for many years. Also, I have a very deliberate process for manipulating photographs and spent more time on post-editing using different digital application software. Each piece was painstakingly created over several weeks.

What inspires me the most is an interesting idea to become the best at what I do…

Being a digital fine artist, I observe the world closely, I often turn to painting, photography and cinema for creative inspirations of storytelling. I am also inspired by thinking ahead – what exactly is it about dramatic stage that causes me to think creatively or feel inspired? Besides, movies and music are extremely close to my creative moods. They always bring me inner peace and have helped in dealing with inspirational perceptions and problems. I believe that when my work takes shape, and they are in perfect ideas with the storytelling are the most exciting for me.

Surreal, fantasy and picturesque…

For me, it is a considerable record. This is a great honour and acknowledgment of my accomplishments, for which I would like to thank the juries for their fair evaluation. This platinum award is significant to the international contemporary art photography. To win such a wonderful award is a best motivation for my future work, because it provides me a sense of success and allows me look forward to my new projects.

The winning work ‘The New Fantasyland’ is fantastic set in a fictional universe, often inspired by our real world; it is without specific place or venue. It raises a number of surreal assemblages as well as dramatic boundary in the theatrical scenario. At the beginning, I had to spend a number of weeks observing on different sites, and shooting hundreds of hi-res images as they were crucial sources and stimulations in order to achieve the seamless photomontages. As a kind of ‘fantasyland’, I narrate events and tales through my storytelling picture. This piece is also part of my ongoing project called ‘Adventure beyond the Fantasylands (2020~)’, in which I could have more freedom of imagination and expression on developing a series of the large-scale composition. This project is focused on the re-thinking of a ‘cinematographic’ picture that associates the pictorial concepts and the ideas between realism and surrealism.

Winning this award is a great honour. In terms of developing the artistic career with a professorship, it can not only make a big difference on professional level, but also acts as a good motivation on developing new ideas for my upcoming projects.

Jeff Wall, Eugenio Recuenco and Julie Blackmon.

As a starting point, my inspiration for the series came from styles of painting and cinematic stages when digital imaging became a new way to depict my fantasylands. Basically, the methods and techniques of the exciting image-making that related to photographic skills, digital technology and notions of painting. The new series has been developing a very distinctive quality where reality is mixed with fantasy.

Identify what you think/imagine about, find your visual sense to creating an eye-catching work. With the large number of art photographers that are out there you must develop unique character, context and narrative to stand out. Then, to truly stand out you need to have a vision of difference.

Be creative with who you are, and do not seek good ideas, trying to ‘create’ them.

I think that I need to stay open for any inspirations and possibilities. For instance, I like watching movies, where I fascinated by the amazing ideas and filmic glamour, and I try to get that into my photographs. So, it has been a magnificent concept to explore and yes, I feel like there is more to be done, but not to follow trends blindly. The perceptions I tend to get from various visual information are very valuable.

The completion of my photograph has a sense of framework that gives me a hint as to what the next piece might be. The approach expresses what I feel with a logic that is like the order of imagination. It set me on an imaginary path where I am on now and will always be looking for the next fantasylands. However, I hope the viewer can create his/her own scenario, without telling the audience what the story was in my work.