One night in 1981, Liu wrote down:”The further the birth is, the closer the death. I am not sure why I am here.”He started photographing that year, at age 18. Two years later, he served in military in Kaohsiung. The cruelty and impermanence of life we​​​​​​​​re introduced to him as he taking care of the traffic accidents between soldiers and civilians in military. He realized that not all the sceneries in life are pretty. This is the first division of his photography career. The focus turned from the young, poetic and lonesome views as the landscape of Yang-Ming Mt., loving families, to the sad and plaintive status of human beings. Yet the consistent calm and unique perspectives remained in this early- twenties photographer .

After military service, Liu worked in the press. It was the emerging time of social movement in Taiwan. Demonstrators shouted their ideals and demands loudly through the microphone and speaker. Liu saw the crowd ganging up, the violent clash of demonstrators and police, also the spy game that stool pigeon played. He even witnessed a heroic self-immolation at site. Over and over again, he moved forward along the blood trail. Repressing his ebullient thoughts and feelings, he became an onlooker of these dauntless combats between ideals and rigidness.

In the last decade of the 20th century, the socialism in western world which was inspired by the Great October Socialist Revolution was gone with the wind. Yet the people in Taiwan were still tr​​​​​​​​ying to break through all kinds of taboos and bans after fifty-year martial law status. An unprecedented era of great aspiration was formed. Liu, after his previous working experience on streets, gave himself to all the scenes of movements. He extracted the people, objects and background in his shots and presented the images in magic realism style: distant and indistinct. The noted Taiwanese photographer Mr. Chang Chao Tang once commented Liu’s works: ‘Time reflections are frozen in his profoundly affecting frames. They represent Liu’s views and dreams.’         

Most of the negative films at Liu’s old house were immersed in the floods when a severe typhoon striking. They were fungus infected and water stained. This amazing and unexpected brush from God made Liu’s style more exotic and mysterious. This nature-made touch set him up another watershed for his creation.   

Image is always his key to explore the mystery of life. He has to pull himself out then contemplate and examine his inner as photographing. It is like entering the house of life, floor by floor. The unexpected incident seemed to respond to his existential self -quest at age 18. With his owned painting skills, he started to make all kinds of peculiar images on photos. Experimenting on the negatives in his dark room, soulless figures were created as new born premature babies, men, puppies and his grandfather’s face , by color removing and stain applying layer after layer. These quiet and unusual images often deliver an intangible sense of vivid mystery yet real enough to catch the viewers’ eyes. These series of images construct the strange sceneries of life. They dig out the indescribable fear at the bottom of viewers’ hearts. All the shades of life which are buried deeply by people are appeared layer by layer just like peeling onions in Liu’s images. .