Although as early as the 1850's colonial powers vying to colonize Formosa made a photographic record of Taiwan, and later missionaries used cameras to photograph local customs and practice it was only after the island was made part of the Japanese empire that "technique" really began to "breed" in Taiwanese.
雖然早在一八五○年代，已有列強在爭奪殖民地時，記錄了台灣的影像，而其後又有外國傳教士以相機拍攝本地的奇風異俗，但直到台灣淪入日本帝國的版圖，「攝影術」才真正在台灣人的身上「醱酵」。