Text｜Hong Caishan; Edit｜Chen Hui Avril
Under the black and white tone, people with half-armored pussy eat on the ground, naked women are disheveled in bed, young children fall asleep on the side of the road, and men in suits and tie are taken away by the police – These extremely impactful scenes are shots of Liang Chengyou, a Korean-born photographer who lives in Japan, real, absurd, but with intent magic.
Liang Chengyu once won the Japanese “Tumen Fist Award” Photography Award for his “Shinjuku Miscellaneous” series. Most of the protagonists of his works are people who wander outside the surface of society. They are not glamorous, some are out of place, and even seem evil, but they actually exist in the world. Liang Chengyou wants everyone to see that some people live like this.
Liang Chengyou, a unicorn fairy who grew up in a Korean field
When watching Liang Chengyou's works, people can't help but imagine what his life looks like. His representative work “Shinjuku Miko” is about the absurdity and unruly of Shinjuku Kabukicho late at night; the seemingly positive title “Auspicious Day of Youth” is actually the arrogant daily life of the Korean underworld. The reason why I get close to these people is not to want to be famous or to gain topics, but to attract him is never a shining and beautiful thing.
Liang Chengyou was born in Jingyi City, North Jeolla Province, South Korea. It is a place famous for its maple viewing and diverse natural scenery. But growing up there, he was regarded as a problem child since he was a child. He often mingled with “bad students”. He went to several high schools before he could barely graduate. He was even nicknamed “The Monoque Immortal” – because after being caught, he would run around like crazy after just a few rounds.
In 1996, at the age of 30, he drove to Busan Port for more than three hours with his friends. It was an exciting road trip, but he felt that continuing to stay in South Korea would only make him more confused, so he bought a one-way ticket to Tokyo and started a new life with the language school as the starting point. Half a year later, in order to extend his visa, he entered the Japanese Photo Art School. Before that, Liang Chengyou had never touched the camera. The reason for choosing that school was just because the location was close to Kabukicho, which made him work and live.
