Military News Agency to hold 80th anniversary photo exhibition in Taipei

Taipei, July 29 (CNA) The Military News Agency (MNA) will hold a photo exhibition in Taipei's Dadaocheng area from July 31 to Aug. 16 to mark its 80th anniversary, showcasing historic images of major military exercises, disaster relief operations and other milestones in Taiwan's defense history.

The exhibition will be held at Olympus Plaza Taipei and will be open to visitors of all nationalities free of charge, the MNA said Wednesday. However, English-language descriptions are currently not included for each photo, although the MNA is looking into providing them.

The exhibition, which will feature more than 70 photographs, is accessible from MRT Shuanglian, Daqiaotou and Beimen stations, according to venue staff.

Established in 1946, the MNA has documented the development of the ROC Armed Forces, the official name of Taiwan's military, covering decades of technological change, transitioning from film photography to digital news gathering, the agency said in a press release.

The MNA, which is affiliated with the Ministry of National Defense, has become one of Taiwan's largest archives of military photographs. Its collection serves as a record of the nation's defense history while documenting the evolution of the armed forces, the agency said.

The exhibition will feature three sections using multimedia displays to illustrate how the MNA has documented the armed forces from the early post-World War II years to Taiwan's present-day democratic and prosperous society, the agency said.

One section features historical photographs, including images of troops advancing through jungle terrain and conducting amphibious landings during the 1960 Blue Star joint Taiwan-U.S. military exercise, as well as a civilian dry dock vessel transporting a Chien Lung-class submarine purchased from the Netherlands to waters off Kaohsiung in 1987.

The section also includes photographs from the first Han Kuang military exercise, held in Penghu in 1984, along with images of troops carrying out disaster relief operations following the Aug. 7 Flood in 1959, the 1999 Chi-Chi Earthquake and Typhoon Morakot in 2009.

Another section highlights photographs from military training exercises, including soldiers setting up concertina wire at night during Han Kuang exercises, underwater welders at work, military police rapid response drills captured using slow shutter speeds, and the firing of 155 mm howitzers by the Kinmen Defense Command.

Among the featured works is a photograph taken by a military journalist through the circular observation window of a CH-47SD Chinook helicopter, using the window as a frame to capture another helicopter parked on a rain-soaked apron.

The third section showcases behind-the-scenes images of military journalists working under challenging conditions, including one reporter immersed in seawater to photograph frogmen during amphibious training and another wading through muddy floodwaters while covering the aftermath of a landslide-dammed lake disaster in Hualien during Typhoon Ragasa in 2025.