Lee Ming-tiao

Lee Ming-tiao, also known as Li Ming-diao and Lee Ming-diao, was a Taiwanese photographer. His work is held in the collections of the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts and the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts and he had a retrospective exhibition at Taipei Fine Arts Museum in 2009.

Life and work

Lee was born in Daxi District, Taoyuan.
He and fellow photographers Chang Tsai and Deng Nan-guang are known as the "Three Swordsmen of Taiwanese Photography" or "Three Musketeers of Photography". Active during the late colonial period and the Sino-Japanese War, they travelled throughout Taiwan, capturing "early Taiwan's rural culture, religious rituals, and social conditions." Lee's work mixes the styles of documentary and studio photography: street photography, as well as carefully arranged lighting and composition, and staged photography. In 1946 and 1947 he travelled all over Taipei, photographing bridges.

Lee Ming-Tiao Photography Retrospective. Taipei: Taipei Fine Arts Museum, 2009.. Exhibition catalogue.

Lee Ming-tiao: Bridges of Taipei, National Center of Photography and Images, Taipei, Taiwan
Lee Ming－tiao Photography Retrospective, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan, January–April 2009

The View of Formosa's Landscape from Photographers, Taiwan Academy, New York, March–May 2015
Tangible Times: Masters of Photography from the NTMoFA and NCPI Collections, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan, December 2020 – February 2021. With Lang Jingshan, Deng Nan-guang, Chang Tsai, and Cheng Shang-Hsi.
Crystalized Times: 2022 Centenary Memorial Exhibition of Photographers of Taiwan — Lee Ming-tiao, Dennis K. Chin, and Lin Chuan-tsu, National Center of Photography and Images, Taipei, Taiwan, December 2021 – April 2022

Lee's work is held in the following permanent collections: