Women Knitting

A serial frame in Jian Yongbin's Rediscovering Den Nan-guang: Complete Works, Collector's Edition, Volumes 1-3 (The Japan Years; Witness to an Era; Romantic Gazes) shows that the women in this picture are on a train. Because earlier collections of Den's photos lacked documentation, it was hard to determine the women's location. In this work, they are sitting solemnly, going about their knitting. Den probably took this picture on a "common carrier," a low-priced local train no longer running on Taiwan's railways. In the 1960s, everyone worked hard to get ahead. While commuting to and from their jobs, women kept their families in mind, knitting sweaters, and making and mending clothing for their loved ones. Here, the woman in the cheongsam is concentrated on her knitting, completely unaware of the photographer's presence. Sitting beside her, the smiling woman in the Western-style dress reflects the good-natured elegance of women of that era. Den Nan-gwang left us three consecutive photos of this scene on negatives taken with a subminiature camera.