Street photography has influenced Taiwan’s post-war photographic style. Due to various factors such as subject matter and shooting angle, it developed into documentary, realistic or journalist photography. After Lee Ming-tiao started using the Rolleiflex camera in the 1940s, he began to capture images more directly through the lens. The theme of this work is female breastfeeding. The mother lowers the brim of a bamboo hat, deliberately covering her face. The fingers gripping the brim reveal the tension in breastfeeding for women. After the war, women in Taiwan still had to endure various restrictions in society, let alone having no exclusive private space. Therefore, nurturing, a natural and legitimate behavior, in public places, still puts women under great pressure. The shooting angle from top focuses on the act of breastfeeding, but the mother does not embrace the child. Instead, her hands raise to hold on the hat while her knees support the milking child, forming a scene of tension. Therefore, it is speculated that the image of the mother and the son was taken at the deliberate request of the photographer, not randomly on the street.
Lin Yi-luo, “2021 Compilation and Research Project of Metadata in Photography.”