Taipei by numbers

The subjects of photography exhibit 101 Shots of Taipei run the gamut from alley cats and yellow crates filled with green Taiwan Beer bottles to dragon boats, KTV parties and overloaded recycling trucks.

When viewers look at Kenya Nagamine and Dicky Chalmer’s photos, which are on display at Good Cho’s (好，丘) until Sunday, they are also invited to go on a scavenger hunt. Each of the 101 images, all of which were shot with vintage twin-lens reflex cameras, contains a numeral, often in unexpected places.

Forty appears on a sports jersey worn by a little boy running on the footbridge next to Da-an Forest Park (大安森林公園), while 61 shows up as the volume number of a comic book lying next to a glass of bubble milk tea. The photos culminate in a shot of Taipei 101 on a sunny day captured from the roof of the Shangri-La’s Far Eastern Plaza Hotel.

101 Shots of Taipei is a collaboration between Nagamine, who is Japanese and the creative director of an advertising company, and Chalmers, a freelance filmmaker from England. The two met three years ago and discovered a shared passion for film photography. Shortly afterward, Nagamine and Chalmers, who frequently collaborate on commercial shoots together, began to discuss the possibility of a joint exhibition. Their goal was to create images that would draw in viewers who usually do not attend art shows.

“We kept thinking that if there is something in the photo that people can look for, it would be more fun,” Nagamine says. The two decided to not only take photos of sights and things they felt represented daily life in Taipei, but also make sure each image had a numeral somewhere in it.

“There’s nothing better than to see people excited about the idea of trying to find out what the number is and, when they find it, have a kind of an ‘a-ha’ moment, like ‘oh 49, that’s where it is!’” Chalmers says.

The 101 photos on display were culled from more than 2,000 frames. Nagamine and Chalmers looked for images that represented Taipei without being too cliched. One of Chalmers’ favorite pictures shows burning incense sticks tucked behind the metal address plaque of number 36 on Da-an Road Section 1. The two wanted to include an image of the act of worship, but felt a shot of a temple would be too obvious.

“We needed to have something with baibai (拜拜),” Chalmers says. “This is of something small, but it represents something much larger than what is happening outside of the photo.”

Their twin-lens reflex cameras, held at waist level, allowed Nagamine and Chalmers to discreetly take candid photos of people, like elderly shoppers at a produce stand or a father and his young son walking down the street, their body postures echoing one another’s.

“Even if they are aware you might be taking pictures, they don’t feel as threatened because it’s a different feeling from having an enormous lens [in front of the photographer’s face],” Chalmers says.

Each photo is labeled with the camera that produced it, instead of a photographer’s credit. The four twin-lens reflex cameras used by Nagamine and Chalmers are each about 50 to 60 years old. Nagamine owns a German Rolleiflex 2.8E and a Japanese-manufactured Minolta Autocord III; Chalmers uses a Flexaret VI, made in Czechoslovakia, and a British Microcord Mk II.

The cameras, which are also on display at Good Cho’s, have different functions and quirks that produce unique photographs. Rolleiflex and Minolta twin-lens reflex cameras are known for high-quality lenses that capture sharp, vivid details, while the Flexaret and Microcord turn out softer images.