In French, MINUIT means midnight: the transitional period between sunset and sunrise. It is a time when the date changes, crimes are committed and transformations occur. Cities offer a different spectacle by day and night. By day, Taipei is a moody yet busy city characterized by an obsolete modernity of which the beauty is never obvious at the first sight. At night, when MINUIT is stealthily approaching, Taipei’s face is shifting, slowly emerging from the dark in the weak, flickering neon lights. At that unique moment, when nothing matters more than the fact of being there, reality is shrinking, time stops running normally and the breath of the city can be heard. Its walls and lanes, its windows and boulevards are evolving into a spectacle of dancing shadows and heavy atmospheres, revealing the secrets of Taipei’s hidden side.

Starting 2010, HUBERT KILIAN has spent long hours each week walking the streets of Taipei and New Taipei at night. The collection of images presented here shows his desire to track down the souls of the city and to capture its after-dark charm. A few night creatures, bit players in this shadow theater, include shopkeepers sleeping in stores that time forgot, tired night workers resting in anonymous eateries on street corners and lost souls or casual walkers savoring an original, nocturnal lifestyle. All these people have gently and generously shared with me those precious secrets that make Taipei by night a very fascinating and poetic city.
HUBERT KILIAN is a Taipei-based French journalist. He began his photographic odyssey in 1996 and, for the past two decades, has been photographing cities to document the relationships between inhabitants and their environment. Through this urban momentum, he seeks to reveal the dramatic potential of the great spectacle of time and people passing by, and of the stones that remain. Taipei is one of his favorite subjects. He has spent many hours visiting every corner to meet people, to record their ways of life and to capture reminiscences of the past and vanishing memories. His work has shown in Paris, Taipei and Bandung, as well as being published in several French and Taiwanese magazines. At www.hubertkilian.com can be seen a more extensive selection of photographs.

*image (left)
Sanchong, 2011
© Hubert Kilian