The Street Performer

When it comes to framing scenes, every photographer has his or her distinctive ideas. Some prefer close-ups, even guiding subjects into the scenes they want to shoot. From the field of view that the angle of this photo presents, it's clear that Den Nan-gwang isn't towering above his subjects—literally or figuratively—but rather snapping the blind street-singers, a husband and wife, from a half-crouched angle on the left. The picture shows only the head and hand of the man playing the erhu, a Chinese violin. The woman sitting and strumming the?yueqin, a kind of lute, is the main subject, the melody her fingers pick out seeming to flow out of the photo and into the viewer's imagination. The couple's bag lies on the ground in the lower left, with two cigarettes and a box a matches on it, a gratuity a passerby has left for the musicians. By placing himself on the same level as his subjects, Den Nan-gwang reveals his compassion and empathy; photos like this of women at work account for a significant portion of his life's work. Den enlarged the photo himself and at the time it became part of the Council for Cultural Affairs' (forerunner of today's Ministry of Culture) collection. After Den's work was digitalized, however, researchers found that only a four photo series, from which this work was missing. Its rediscovery marks a significant step toward preserving the entirety of Deng Nan-gwang's life work.