Hungkuang University Professor Wins Platinum, Best Photo, and Gold Awards at the 2025 Spring World Photography Awards in the UK

Wei-Kai Lin, a faculty member of the Department of Multimedia Game Development and Applications at Hungkuang University, participated in the “2025 Spring World Photography Awards” held in the United Kingdom. In the Lifestyle Photography category, he received one Platinum Award with Best Photo and one Gold Award. His award-winning works, themed around Bao’an Station in Tainan and the old Taichung Railway Station, masterfully captured the beauty of light and shadow in Taiwan’s train stations.

Lin shared that his recent photographic creations focus on Taiwan’s railway stations. His Platinum Award and Best Photo-winning work, “Getting Ready”, is a color photograph taken at Bao’an Station in his hometown of Tainan. It depicts the station master completing final checks before a train’s departure, where the interplay of light and lines conveys an artistic sense of everyday life.

His Gold Award-winning piece, “Daily Life on the Platform”, is a black-and-white photograph shot at the old Taichung Railway Station. Capturing the moment just before a train arrived, it portrays passengers gazing into the distance while the glow from the train’s interior lights created layered halos on the platform shelter, evoking a rhythmic beauty of light and shadow in motion.

Lin emphasized that for him, 90% of photography’s artistry comes from the perception of light — the atmosphere between brightness and darkness. This perspective not only guides his personal creative process but also shapes his teaching, where he encourages students to observe and document the beauty created by the interplay of light and shadow in everyday life.

Commenting on the rise of AI-generated imagery, Lin stressed that AI can never fully replace photography. While AI images may appear overly polished and lack authenticity, photography uniquely records the beauty of light and shadow in the present moment. Each photograph is singular and imperfect, reflecting the natural flaws of reality, which in his view is what makes photography irreplaceable.

Recalling his own journey into photography, Lin said he first became interested in middle school when he began using a point-and-shoot camera his father had received as a gift. Although he majored in Occupational Safety in college, he devoted much of his time to the photography club. After graduation, he worked in commercial photography, where he not only had to capture images but also master post-editing skills. Driven by passion, he continued to refine his craft through study and practice, ultimately deepening his conviction that the true value of a photographer lies in documenting authentic, beautiful, and irreplaceable moments.