楊順發為台南善化人，現居高雄，是中鋼公司的藍領工人，從事攝影創作逾四十年。代表作品有《再造王國》(1997)、《家園游移狀態》(2006)、《彩庄紅毛港》(2007) 、《種稻計畫-黃金母子山》(2022)等。近年來對台灣海岸線進行廣泛的田野踏察而發展出大型的「海島計畫」，其中的《台灣水沒》《台灣土狗Taiwan To Go》等系列，曾獲2018年高雄獎首奬，2022年獲《台灣文化獎》。其作品曾受邀至法國、美國、香港、科索沃、北愛爾蘭等國展出，並獲巴黎歐洲攝影之家與國內各大美術館典藏。

近年來的《台灣水沒》、《台灣土狗—Taiwan To Go》系列海邊風景，他結合《台灣水墨》畫的概念，選擇輕柔的手法來表現地層下陷所造成的災難式場景。將大自然對人造環境的反撲用一幅幅近似冊頁的形式呈現，在唯美、輕柔的表象下，其實是自然無言的抗議。探討地球暖化海平面上升，人要與大自然如何相處？人定勝天嗎？台灣美嗎？

Yang Shun-Fa was born in Shanhua, Tainan and currently lives in Kaohsiung. Aside his blue-collar work at China Steel Corporation, he has devoted more than forty years to photography. His representative works include Reconstructed Kingdom (1997), Home and Rootless (2006), Embellishing Hongmaogang (2007), and Rice-Planting Project: Golden Mother-and-Son Mountain (2022).

In recent years, Yang has conducted extensive field investigations along Taiwan’s coastline, developing a large-scale project titled “The Island Project.” Series such as the Submerged Beauty of Formosa and Taiwan To-Go were awarded the First Prize of the Kaohsiung Award in 2018. He received the National Cultural Award in 2022. His works have been exhibited in France, the United States, Hong Kong, Kosovo, and Northern Ireland, and are held in the collections of the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris as well as major art museums in Taiwan.

In the recent coastal landscape series, Submerged Beauty of Formosa and Taiwan To-Go, Yang draws on concepts from traditional Taiwanese ink painting, adopting a restrained and gentle visual language to depict the catastrophic consequences of lland subsidence. He frames nature’s counterforce to man-made environments in compositions reminiscent of album leaves. Delicate and lyrical on the surface, the works nonetheless carry nature’s silent protest beneath their beauty. Through these works, Yang reflects on climate change and rising sea levels, posing enduring questions: How should humans coexist with nature? Can humanity truly conquer nature? And what does it mean to call Taiwan beautiful?