By observing the past to understand the present, we recognize that history is formed of the past and the present. It coalesces into a collective memory and emotion specific to a locality, giving rise to cultural identity and paving the way for the future. In this context, photography serves as one of the important mediums for preserving cultural memory. When we look at the field of art photography and image creation in Taiwan, Mr. Chuang Ling is a highly representative one.

His photography journey began in 1953 when he took his first photograph with a borrowed camera, which turned out to be the only successful image from that roll. From that point on, his photography career unfolded with richness and depth. Through continuous and authentic image documentation, he preserved the stories of the years as a photographer, the fading street scenes and objects, as well as the artistic creative process influenced by the trends of the time. When we revisit these images after many years, they have become valuable historical documents, offering significant insights into the past.

Chuang Ling, born in Guizhou, China in 1938, graduated from the Department of Forestry, National Chung Hsing University (NCHU) in 1961. When he was young, he accompanied his father to transport the first batch of cultural relics from The Palace Museum to Taiwan. He witnessed the old days of the that the cultural relics still been preserved in Beigou, Wufeng District, and was deeply influenced by the classical culture. Wandering in the experimentation and agitation of novel artistic concepts, his works show elegant and unrestrained techniques. His 24 years of career as a photojournalist at TTV provided him an opportunity to visit a lot of countries and experience the changes in the world situation and the photographic area in the second half of the 20th century. He truly learned about news and documentary photography, which deeply influenced his following image creation and photographic art. Chuang Ling can shoot, write, and direct; he founded Theatre Quarterly and Visual-10 (V10) group with his friends in the 1960s. He has been invited to exhibit and give lectures, domestic and foreign and has been widely praised by international media.

In 2008, he and Mr. Dong Min alumnus held "The Vision of Great Disparity: Dong Min・Chuang Ling Photography Art Exhibition" at the Art Center of NCHU, and donated the representative work series of “Life on the Road”, which was passed down as a story of the art world. In 2022, Chuang Ling was invited to stage a special photography exhibition for the 103rd Anniversary of NCHU, the works on display focus on the campus life in Provincial Agricultural College (the predecessor of NCHU) between 1957 to 1961, allowing us to glimpse the early prosperity of NCHU and social changing. After the exhibition, those precious school history documents will be donated to the alma mater for well preserved.

Initial from recording people and things around to later journalism work in the era of personal life and the environment, Chuang Ling developed a series of creative themes. He explored nearly seventy years through the camera, and what he saw was not only the changes of the times and the process of multicultural integration. He brings out the philosophy of photography and spreads the aesthetics of photography.