攝影在今日的菁英文化語境中，普遍被視為一種當代視覺藝術，而一般社會大眾長久以來也視攝影創作為一種容易接近或操作的美術形式。臺灣的攝影史雖有幾位學院內外孜孜不倦的研究者與著述者，但一個相對全面、集體、具有某種史觀或批判性的臺灣攝影史的論著，仍比較缺乏，有待更多的研究與書寫。本期的專題「寫真時代：日本殖民歷史與臺灣攝影經驗」，將攝影視為檔案與史料，通過對攝影檔案之不同功能或使用方式的考察，試圖梳理在日本殖民者的治理下，攝影所產生的政治、社會與文化作用。
The world of elite culture tends to view photography as a form of contemporary visual art, but ordinary society has long viewed it as an art form that is highly accessible and easy to do. Although in Taiwan there have been several scholars and writers, both inside and outside academia, who have devoted themselves tirelessly to the history of photography, we have seen a relative scarcity of written works on the history of Taiwanese photography that are comprehensive and collective and possess a certain historical perspective or critical outlook. More research and writing in this field is clearly needed. The special theme of this edition, "The Age of Photography: Japanese Colonial History and Taiwan Photography," considers photography as archive and historical data. By investigating the different functions of photographic archives and the different ways in which they are used, we attempt to systematically understand the political, social and cultural effects of photography under Japanese colonial rule.
