CHIEN CHIH JOU

Photographer / Writer

Not born in a recognized country.
No training in communications, nor in mechanics. No reciting theories by heart.
No holding technique as the ultimate rule, no failing to question the process of aesthetic construction.
No believing in images and language. No love of categorization.
Not brave, not obedient, not without guilt.
Not a woman, nor a man.

Awards & Recognitions:
2025 — “LOW OPTICS,” 2nd Place (Honorable Mention), Raise Your Zine!, organized by THE DOCKS.
2026 — Selected exhibitor, PHOTO GO TAIPEI (攝影上桌), Taiwan.

Selected Projects:
2026 (Feb) — “LOW OPTICS,” Photobook dummy.
2026 (Apr) — “The Rhetoric without Her” (無她的修辭), Photography series.
2026 (Apr) — “Red Line Route” (紅色航線), Photography and mixed media series.
2026 — “(Death), the Longest State of Being.（死亡是最漫長的一種狀態）” Photobook dummy project (in progress).

low optics

Taiwan , 2026

A photobook on fractured proximity,

unauthorized seeing,

and the failure of photographic courage.
Honorable Mention ( 2nd Place ) ,

THE DOCKS

Raise Your Zine! 2025 ( Italy ) .

T h e　R h e t o r i c　W i t h o u t　H E R

Taiwan , 2026

Discipline is a meticulously woven monstrous skin,

under which the marginal and the wild are institutionalized as an endless, absurd commentary.

In the very narratives centered around her, she remains perpetually absent.
Reinterpreting the traditional Taiwanese folklore of “Hu Gu Po,”

my body embodies this established power narrative while injecting it with the power of resistance.

The tiger skin sheds, soil roots into the skin,

the flame refuses to die, and freedom thrives beneath my feet.

“Hu Gu Po”: A classic Taiwanese horror legend about a tiger spirit

that transforms into an old woman to trick and prey on children at night,

commonly used by adults to discipline crying or sleepless children.

　　Medium / Technique
　　Micro-mist pigment print on xuan paper;

　　soil, withered branches, wilted flowers,

　　and perfume scented with the smell of earth,

　　transporting nature into the exhibition space.

　　Dimensions
　　A4, A5

　　Status
　　A one-time installation.

　　The physical materials (soil, branches, flowers)

　　are not preserved and the work is not reproducible.

Collected visions, unclaimed.
They remain:

unpublished, uncommissioned, unrepentant.
Not yet summoned.

Not yet tamed.

EsCAPE MAN

Taiwan , 2022

A short novel about an old man

who survives by running—
from family, from memory, from responsibility.
Set inside a sealed shopping mall that

behaves like a confession chamber,
the book moves between gunfire, hallucination,

and inherited violence.
Reality collapses not through fantasy,

but through repetition.
This is not a redemption story.
It is a record of escape that never truly succeeds.

Original character short fiction collection.
Designed, written, and self-published.

21,476 words / 15 chapters / 122 pages

Sold exclusively in limited quantities
at independent creation events.

14.8cm × 14.8cm square format, inspired by vinyl records.
Gold-stamped cover with custom character nameplate.

If you’re curating, collaborating,

or simply watching from a distance—
feel free to reach out.
I may not always reply quickly, but I do read everything.

chienchihjou@proton.me
( no form , just email—quiet is fine )