Juan I-jong shows his photos that focus on rural Taiwan. [Photo provided to China Daily]

"I am forever grateful to the people who not only allowed me to take their pictures but also offered me their trust and kindness," he says.

He was determined to repay them with utmost respect. The respect for people and subjects one chooses to shoot are important experiences that Juan wanted to share with the world.

In the past few years, Juan, who is based in Taipei, has extensively traveled in the mainland, giving lectures and holding workshops for photography and photo processing in more than a dozen cities. His social media account on Weibo has more than 1.8 million followers.

Technology has now made photography more accessible to the common people. It wasn't easy earlier to post millions of pictures on the web and share it with lost of people. However, Juan feels sad to see photography lose much of its meaning and depth, he says.

"Your selfie has no significance, and neither does your pet however cute it may be," he says. "They are reflections of your narcissistic self, rather than a valuable image of the real world."

Juan remembers his first moment of enlightenment as a photographer when he observed everything through the camera lens. "I realized how subjective my point of view once was."