Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Taipei
Few buildings in Asia have quite the presence of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. You come around a corner in central Taipei and suddenly there it is, this vast white marble pyramid topped with a deep blue octagonal roof, sitting at the far end of a plaza so large it makes the people crossing it look like ants. The scale is deliberately overwhelming, and it works.
We spent most of a morning here, working our way around the complex from the main hall across to the National Concert Hall and the National Theatre, and then back through Liberty Square. The light was strong and clear for October, which helped enormously with the white marble. Any kind of cloud or flat light and the building loses its drama completely. The blue sky we had made every shot.
The approach shot I wanted most was the arch framing. The Liberty Square gate has three arches, and standing behind the central one you get the memorial hall perfectly aligned in the distance, framed by the white carved stonework on either side. On the day we visited a group of drummers in yellow shirts were performing in the plaza, and they walked right into that frame at exactly the right moment. That kind of serendipity is what travel photography lives on. You cannot plan for it, you can only be in the right position when it happens.
The changing of the guard ceremony runs every hour on the hour and it draws a substantial crowd. I photographed it from the top of the main steps looking down, which gave a clean overhead angle that separated the white-uniformed guards from the grey stone below. The precision of the drill is remarkable. Every movement is choreographed to the centimetre and the guards hold their positions for the full hour before the ceremony begins, completely still in what was considerable heat.
Inside the main hall the ceiling is the thing. I had seen photographs of it before but I was not expecting how perfectly centred it is, or how the geometric pattern draws your eye directly to the twelve-pointed sun emblem at the very centre. Lying on your back to photograph it straight up is the only way to get the full symmetry, and it is absolutely worth looking slightly odd in front of other visitors to do so.
The National Concert Hall on the western side of the plaza is often overlooked by visitors who spend all their time at the memorial, but photographically it is extraordinary. The amber and gold tiled roof, the red columns, the formal gardens in front, all in that intense October midday light. It is a completely different colour palette to the white marble of the main hall and the contrast between the two buildings across the plaza is striking.
Liberty Square itself is worth time on its own. The central flagpole, the vast open stone floor, the gate with its blue tiled pagoda roof and the city skyline visible beyond it all. There is a particular shot looking straight back from the memorial steps, across the full length of the plaza to the gate with the flag at the top, that puts the scale of the whole complex into perspective in a way that no close-up can.
