More Patrick Tsai

Doing a little more research on Patrick Tsai’s work. I found an article (1) on Lomography Japan’s website, conducted by Mindy Albert. It gave quite good insight into his practice and mindset. Albert describes Tsai as a photographer who “interestingly and honestly tackles what people are missing out because they are so focused on the big picture. I think it is important as a human being to question what’s in front of you, rather than looking away ahead of where everyone else is going.” (Albert, 2016.)

In the interview Tsai mentions that in his series Barnacle Island (which were taken after the Great Earthquake of Japan occurred), he aimed to capture “the small things about daily life that changed or grew stronger in the wake of the quake,” at a time when “everyone in Japan and foreign news were so busy covering [the disaster.]”(Tsai, 2016.)

I quite liked his comment about his aesthetic, which I feel is very loose and raw…

“In Japanese, there is a term called “heta-uma”, which translates “bad but good”. I’ve never been very good at technical things, nor interested to learn them, so you could say, from a technical viewpoint, that my work is not very professional. I have come to accept this weakness of mine and use it as my strength. My weakness is part of my style.” (Tsai, 2016)

I found his Flickr account (2) which has a lot more of his work from Japan on it. I particularly liked the four above images because of their geometric framing (the station shot) and the personality that comes through with the homework images.

(1) Tsai, Patrick. Interview by Mindy Albert. ”Bad But Good: An Interview with Patrick Tsai.” Lomography Japan, 02 August 2016 <https://www.lomography.jp/magazine/322705-an-interview-with-patrick-tsai>

(2) Tsai, P 2008, Patrick Tsai, Flickr, viewed 07 April 2020 <https://www.flickr.com/photos/patpat/>