Bibliography of Photo-albums and Materials related to
the History of Photography in China and Tibet before 1949
1949年前中国與西藏摄影史文献资料库
Compiled by Thomas H. Hahn©




Old  bridge in central Shanxi, across a riverbed which has dried up
(From the book Through Hidden Shensi, by Francis H. Nichols;  New York, Scribner & Sons, 1905, p.107)


Access the Bibliography - 进入文献资料库
(365 annotated entries, file size now ca. 650kb)
First published on-line: April 1997;  Last update: July 2, 2009
.
News of the field 参考消息与报道


--凝光擷影--
攝影術的發明暨
中國澳門老照片
 New (July 2, 2009): The Macao Museum is hosting an exhibition at present, entitled A Journey through Light and Shadow - The Invention of Photography and the earliest photographs of Macao, China.
Here is an introduction to the exhibit, taken from the preface on the exhibition website. "As is known to all, photography was introduced to China from France via Macao. The earliest photos of China presently found were taken in Macao in 1844 by Jules Itier from France. Represented by “A-Ma Temple, Macao” and “Praia Grande”, these landscape shootings on daguerreotype will evoke a visual aesthetic resonance through their most genuine portraits of life, and will serve as the first monument in the history of Chinese photography that testifies the humanistic brilliance being added to this little town of Macao through photography more than a century ago. Since The Historic Centre of Macao was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2005, collecting, researching, publishing and exhibiting historical photos of Macao have become a renowned school in both photographic circle and academia. With superb techniques and exquisite view-capture, photographic works of large quantity have manifested a profound understanding towards the abundant details of Macao’s cultural heritage and preserved valuable moments in Macao’s cultural history. 'A Journey through Light and Shadow – The Invention of Photography and the Earliest Photographs of Macao, China' will engage more concerns towards Macao’s culture and history, and will serve its turn in popularizing the art of photography."
Note that the web site refered to above and to the left should perhaps be called a "Journey through  Light and Shadow" itself - it is awkwardly coded, very small, and therefore rather unwieldy to maneuver.




申報



 New (June 20, 2009): The intimate relationship between 19th century engravings and photography has again been underscored in a recent publication on old Beijing as depicted in historical western copperplate engravings, produced by the Taiwanese collector Qin Feng 秦风. The Shen Bao 申报 in Shanghai, L'Univers Illustré in Paris and the Illustrated London News are just three representative examples of how the printed image made its way successfully into a mass media market of global dimensions. Among the plates reprinted in Qin Feng's publication mentioned above, it is therefore not surprising to find explicit language linking a photographer's work with an engraver's final product. Sifting through all the plates reproduced in the second half of the book, I managed to identify nine such references:
1. Abords de l'entrée du palais Impérial. - Dessin de H. Clerget, d'après une photographie du docteur Morache
2. La colline et le lac du Ouane-cheou-chane. - Dessin de H. Clerget, d'après une photographie du docteur Morache
3. Chapelle du couvant dans le cimetière des eunuques. - Dessin de Taylor, d'après une photographie du docteur Morache
4. Chapelle épiscopale de Pékin. -  Dessin de H. Catenacci, d'après une photographie de M. Thomson*
5. Sépultures des jésuites, a Pékin: Tombes du P. Ricci et du P. Schall. - Dessin de H. Catenacci, d'après une photographie du docteur Morache
6. Lacs et jardins du palais Impérial. - Dessin de H. Clerget, d'après une photographie du docteur Morache
7. Le pont des mendiants, dans la ville Chinoise. - Dessin de H. Clerget, d'après une photographie du docteur Morache
8. Péking - La ville chinoise vue de la muraille. - Photographies J. Blase
9. La porte entrée de la Legation de France, 15 âout [1900] - Photographies du médecin-major J. Matignon
For the record, three rare names have emerged from this quick exercise: the good doctor Georges-Auguste Morache (1837-1906; see Régine Thiriez in her Barbarian Lens, p.12-13); the medic-major J. Matignon (author of the book  Superstition, Crime et Misère en Chine), and a certain J. Blase. Morache's work dates to the 1870s, while Matignon and Blase date around 1900.
*The name M. Thomson (#4 above, dated to the 1880s) may be a misspelling for John Thomson.












New (May 26, 2009): With close to 40,000 contributing members, Picture China (老照片爱好者的家园) is a community of people interested in the historical image, whether that image depicts an old street view of Beijing, the execution of a corrupt female official in the 1980s, or the influenza epidemic which had much of western Europe in its grip back in 1918. The variety of posts speaks to its diverse membership, which at this point may or may not be all-Chinese (I have not yet registered myself). Postings take place in a bulletin-board style (BBS), with pictures being embedded in the original post, calling for a debate, criticism or reflection of any kind. The time range appears to be from the very earliest photographs up to the 1980s. There is a general archive of images; a corner for collectors; a classification scheme for historic photographs by genre and location, and so on. Contributors are encouraged to post and/or to respond, and appear to be awarded points or "virtual money" (金钱） for being actively engaged. Depending on your status in and your contribution to the community, access may or may not be granted to various parts of the site, which also includes on-line movie streaming, a discussion board for old (revolutionary) movies and an on-line archive of old songs 歌曲. Windows Media Player Extension is necessary to run certain parts of the on-line media. Overall a site to watch and follow - there is much to explore here. (Note that there is to date no English version of this resource)


Propaganda painting depicting
a Japanese soldier about
to stab a Chinese
farmers to death		 New (April 29, 2009): A new movie was just released to much acclaim in China, entitled Nanjing! Nanjing! 南京! 南京! (or "City of Life and Death" in English). It is, obviously, about the so-called Rape of Nanjing, the Japanese invasion of the city, atrocities committed there specifically in December 1937, what choices (if any) the occupying Japanese forces provided for the civilian population of the city, and so on. Another movie, entitled "John Rabe" after the German industrialist who aided Chinese to flee from Japanese oppression in the same city (that film did win best film at the German Film Awards ceremony in Berlin earlier this week), is set to be shown in China this coming weekend, too. I mention both films because in both cases the subject touches upon the small matter of the authenticity of the recorded image. This same subject matter was taken up, if you will recall, by a Japanese research group which examined historical photographs taken (perhaps, definitely, maybe) in Nanjing during the occupation. The English version of the group's report (PDF format, 236 pages) called Analyzing the “Photographic Evidence” of the Nanking Massacre has now been released (the Japanese version was published in 2005). Analyzing (oftentimes in highly speculative fashion) and attempting to validate (in fact mostly in-validating!) hundreds of published and unpublished photographs supposedly from Nanjing and environs, the report closes with the unsurprising statement that "most of the photographs that have been in use - such as those included in numerous publications, those on display at the Memorial Hall in Nanking or at media events in Japan - cannot constitute viable evidence of the alleged atrocities in Nanking", and cautions against the use of ongoing manipulative media practices (engaged in by both Japan and China) as it "stand[s] in the way of fostering genuine friendship between the two nations."


Workshop:
The Role of Photography in Shaping China's Image, 1860-1945
 New (April 20, 2009): Word just reached me about an upcoming workshop entitled "The Role of Photography in Shaping China's Image, 1860-1945" at Northwestern University's Art History Department on April 24/24 (2009). The workshop agenda is described as follows:
"This workshop explores photography's decisive role in shaping China’s image for both internal and international audiences." [...] "The central question is: Did China’s own early 20th century mass media internalize the negative, colonial view of its emerging urban culture? Professional Chinese photography of peripheral nationals indicates the impact was profound—a mimicry that is predicated on Euramerican anxiety of China’s role in the modern world. This conference will bring together scholars who will address this question exploring the relationship of coastal photography with China’s own neo-colonial photography of the ‘primitive’ interior. The inquiry extends to Greater China and the impact of photographic practices in Japanese colonization."
Abstracts of the workshop presentations can be found here.





New (April 12, 2009): The old Scotsman John Thomson continues to impress with his photographic oeuvre, almost 140 years after it was created. The quaint World Art Museum in Beijing honors the old master with a new exhibit. Betty Yao, curator of said exhibit, remarks that Thomson, who was active in China in the early 1870s, constituted an early  specimen of the "original photojournalist", a craftsman who lugged imposing and cumbersome equipment around and yet managed to capture "intimate moments". It is fair to say that Thomson had a huge influence on how the West viewed China in the late 19th century and thereafter. How China views Westerners's interpretations and annotations of such views is another story altogether. English captions for some photographs on exhibit don't match the Chinese counterparts, the latter appear to be sanitized as they are deemed sensitive or perhaps even offensive for the Chinese public. The exhibit opens April 16, and will travel after the closing on May 18 to other destinations in China, before being put on display in Liverpool, England, some time in early 2010.

Taoist monk at the
Wenchangge 文昌阁		 New (April 12, 2009): The Northeast of China, photographically speaking, is a somewhat neglected territory. Photographers active there before 1949 were mostly of Russian and Japanese origin, surveying the land with distinctive purpose and driven by various (mostly political) agendas. The area around Harbin specifically was Russia-dominated, and it therefore is no surprise that once in a while we do encounter the work of a Russian photographer who took it upon himself to document his environment. I purchased such an album of Russian provenance a while back, and have finally been able to put it up in my Zenfolio space. It is of no great import, but the work does cover a rare (and as far as I was able to ascertain no longer existing) Taoist abode by the -genereic - name of Wenchangge 文昌阁 in Ashihe 阿什河, some short distance southeast of Harbin (now Acheng District of the same city). As historical photographic coverage of Chinese Taoist temples and abodes goes, this album of original, pasted-in photographs must be counted among the very few (perhaps a handful, not more) such records ever published.



Li Hongzhang
September 27, 1900		 New (April 5, 2009): The Boxer Rebellion in 1900 had a profound impact on Chinese foreign policy. Much has been written about the state of affairs in China at the time, about the advances and adventures of the allied forces marching into the Forbidden City, scaling Beijing's city walls, putting up tent camps in the two adjacent southern Tan 坛 (Heaven and Agriculture), and so on. Now it would appear as if the amount of visual documentation of this critical event hitherto has been underestimated. Chiefly named here should be the Killie Album; various select illustrations (mostlty engravings) in Chinese, Japanese, European and American newspapers; Ricalton's photographic record; the publication from the Peking-Tientsin Publishing Co.; and Meerscheidt-Hüllessem's extensive visual documentary. It turns out that this, however, is only half the story (if that!). Two private, very specialized photo-albums, recently sold at auction on eBay (for 5-figure $ amounts; # 150329921135 & 270356418256), are clear evidence that the photographic record created in 1900 was in fact much more comprehensive than previously thought. It would be a worthwhile undertaking to aggregate these data and compile a quick reference listing of the variously held (if not readily acessible) visual sources to the Boxer Rebellion. 


CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT

 New (February 16, 2009): This year's Annual Meeting of the Association of Asian Studies in Chicago (March 26-29, 2009) will feature a panel entitled Photographic Practices, Visual Transgression and National Identity in Meiji Japan and Republican China (Session #219, Sunday morning 8:30 to 10:30). Besides (hopefully) elaborating on the notion of Visual Transgression, the panel includes the two following talks which might be of interest: 
1. "National Identity and Photographic Reproductions of Art in Early Twentieth-Century China"; by Yu-Jen Liu, University of Oxford; and
2. “Photographers’ Dream Comes True:” Nationalism and Photography of Mt. Huang"; by Yi Gu, Brown University. 


Liu Xucang's studio		 New (February 12, 2009): While traveling through the village of Nanxun in Zhejiang province recently, I discovered an exhibition hall dedicated to one of this old village's illustrious sons, namely, the photographer Liu Xucang 刘旭沧. Photographer Liu, it turns out, was a student and contemporary of Lang Jingshan, and in fact much of his oeuvre (going now for 10.000-30.000 RMB at auction for a single print) is inspired by Lang, if not directly related in terms of composition, technique, and motif. Similarities are so great (including nude models) that I actually thought at first that this was a combined Liu-Lang exhibition. Liu Xucang needs to be credited with a number of things. He very much inaugurated color photography in China, at least he was an "early adopter". He also successfully contributed to national and international saloons, and did win many prizes with his work. Finally, he was the twice-elected secretary of the Chinese National Society of Photographers. He died in 1966, a year many good people died, at age 53. 




New (December 27, 2008): The Taft Mission to Asia of 1905 took its 83 delegates to countries such as Japan, China, Korea and the Philippines. One of the results of the mission was the controversial Taft-Katsura Agreement, signed on July 29, 1905. The amateur photographer Harry Fowler Woods accompanied Taft and his entourage, documenting the mission's major sites and events. Long forgotten albums of these images were discovered in 2004, serving as the foundation of an exhibit entitled "Looking East: William Howard Taft and the 1905 Mission to Asia - The Photographs of Harry Fowler Woods", on tour around the US and Asia. I managed to see the exhibit as it was displayed in Hangzhou this October. The so-called Harry Fowler Woods 1905 Photography Project is preserving the memory of the main actors of this particularly interesting and important diplomatic mission. 





New (November 12, 2008): For those interested in how national monuments fare in China over the years (in this case, hundreds of years), visiting the exhibit in Beijing's Guozijian 国子监 on the Great Wall of China may be a rewarding experience. Most compelling is the contrast between visual documentation from the early part of the 20th century, namely by W. Edgar Geil and others), and what William Lindesay and his colleague Piao Tiejun 朴铁军 saw and captured when they revisited the same sites (mostly and methodically) from the mid-1980s onward. The photographic exhibit is complemented by many other objects, including antiquarian books, antique maps (an original map of the Octava Asie Tabula variety for example!); W. Edgar Geil's notes, diaries, and a curious American flag. A very worthwhile publication entitled The Great Wall Revisited - From the Jade Gate to Old Dragon's Head was just released earlier in September. The exhibit is open to the public until the middle of December 2008.  

DUKE UNIVERSITY

 New (September 7, 2008):  Duke University has put together an extremely valuable resource earlier this year, namely, the Collection of Sidney D. Gamble Photographs. "From 1908 to 1932, Sidney Gamble (1890-1968) visited China four times, traveling throughout the country to collect data for social-economic surveys and to photograph urban and rural life, public events, architecture, religious statuary, and the countryside. A sociologist, renowned China scholar, and avid amateur photographer, Gamble used some of the pictures to illustrate his monographs. The Sidney D. Gamble Photographs digital collection marks the first comprehensive public presentation of this large body of work that includes photographs of Korea, Japan, Hawaii, San Francisco, and Russia. The site currently features photographs dated between 1917 and 1932; the 1908 photographs will be digitized and uploaded as part of future additions to the site." 
It should be noted that this collection comprises almost 5000 images, for the most part related to China. The images are described (and therefore searchable) following the annotations given by Gamble himself. This presents a bit of a problem in my view, as a search for the term "Suzhou" (note the Pinyin romanization!) for example retrieves images which, geographically speaking, have nothing to do with Suzhou the town, nor with the environs of Suzhou, or perhaps even with Jiangsu province at large. One has to tread with caution, but once thus cautioned, truly pioneering work can be accomplished by using just this particular and monumental archive. And did I mention that the image files are downloadable as full resolution JPGs (aka ~4000 by 3000 pixels)? 

Archive of
Asian-American
Photographs
made available
at UC Berkeley
 New (September 6, 2008):  Under the headline UC Berkeley organizes Asian American photo archive an article by Kristin Bender was just published in the Oakland Triibune on Sept. 6, stating in its two opening paragraphs that "The Ethnic Studies Library at UC Berkeley has recently completed organizing and archiving what is thought to be one of the largest Asian American photograph collections held in a public institution worldwide, university officials said. With a $180,000 grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, more than 200,000 photos taken by professional photographer Kem Lee, documenting San Francisco's Chinatown from the 1940s to the 1980s, were sorted, labeled, cataloged and neatly placed in Manila folders." Besides the Kem Lee collection, a second major photo collection, namely by photographer Henry Woon, awaits preservation treatment and cataloging.  "The [Woon] archive contains more than 240,000 images of Asian Americans in San Francisco and the East Bay from the 1950s to about 2000."

New (July 28, 2008):  The National Gallery of Australia recently opened an exhibit on Asia-Pacific Photography 1840s - 1940s, entitled Picture Paradise. From the exhibit web site: 
"This is the first exhibition to survey the history of photography of our region – from India and Sri Lanka, Southeast and East Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands to the west coast of North America. It features pioneer local photographers as well as Europeans working in the region. The exhibition reveals the rich heritage and the many outstanding achievements of the first century of photography  in the Asia–Pacific region.
This significant gathering of over four hundred original photographs and albums includes gem-like daguerreotype portraits, mass-produced views and portraits on paper made possible by the revolutionary wet-plate and dry-plate glass negative-positive process, and prints from the modern era of small format film cameras and photojournalism." 
Judging from the well-done and resourceful web site, this exhibit is well worth a personal visit. It is open until November 9, 2008.




New (June 11, 2008):  On my Zenfolio site earlier this month I put up a number of galleries with photographs of various aspects of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution 文化大革命 in China (generally dated 1966-1976). Much has been written about this traumatic segment of China's recent past, but - with the exception of the legacies of Li Zhensheng and Weng Naiqiang - the subject (for very complex and difficult reasons) is not well covered visually. For example, in An Anthology of Chinese Photography 1957-2000 (1957-2000 中国摄影作品精选), the ten years between 1964 and 1974 are not represented at all, and the years 1974 to 1979 display mostly Mao and Model Operas (yangbanxi 样板戏). It is evident that in many instances and ways, the CR is still very much a taboo subject in China itself.
With the exception of Chang Song's striking images, the galleries offered here reflect parts of my own holdings on the subject. There are at present five galleries (two more will follow soon), with the following content:
1. The anti-Kong anti-Lin campaign in Qufu 批孔批林运动 - 决不充许开历史倒车 (27 photographs, April 1974)
2. Sports and physical education 发展体育运动 - 增强人民体质 (15 photographs, November 1971)
3. The nation-wide educational campaign in the mechanical and life sciences 教育战线生气勃勃 (21 photographs, April 1974)
4. China's navy and archaeology (sic!) on the Xisha Islands 西沙群岛 (20 photographs, approx. early 1974)
5. China's heavy industry in the early 1970s (coming soon)
6. Drills and practices of the Peoples Liberation Army PLA in the early 1970s (14 photographs, coming soon)
7. A small selection of Chang Song's work covering the late 1960s as exhibited in the Caochangdi Art District in Beijing in 2007
 






 New (June 11, 2008): If anybody doubted it in recent years, eBay remains a wonderful source of materials and insights. Historical photographs of China, Japan, and, to a lesser degree, Korea, are listed with great regularity. In many instances, complete albums of sailors or soldiers serving in the Pacific theatre come up for auction. Likewise, photographic collections of members of the Japanese military serving in China/Manchuria, not to speak of the myriad individual postcards and photographs of anonymous provenance. Recently a unique batch of late 19th century albumen photographs of southwestern China was sold for $3500 (item #180244923196). As far as I am aware, the photographer is unknown, and the existence of said images had not entered the public record. For those researchers interested in the early stages of the medium in China, such a discovery is like striking gold. One has exactly seven days to view and analyse the images before they are being sold to the highest bidder, usually a private party (as opposed to a public institution like a museum or a library). Another item (#380013677422), still current in fact, is Dr. Rudolf Mell's personal oeuvre of photographs from southern China, specifically, the area around Guangzhou (Canton), where Dr.Mell resided and worked as a botanist for over a decade. The seller is asking for $5500 for the entire collection, but also entertains offers. 
A number of years ago I published an article on how a small collection of original photographs of the 1868 Burlingame mission to the US faired on eBay. For those interested, this article can be found here (in PDF).


Gallery 1 (German provenance)


Gallery 2 (Russian provenance)
 New (May 23, 2008): It may be un-timely in the wake of the Wenchuan Earthquake disaster and the EV71 outbreak, but here we go...The so-called Manchurian (Pneumonic) Plague of 1910-11, a fiasco in the history of public health in China, came at a time when the imperial court in Beijing was at its weakest and the Republican Revolution led by Sun Yat-sen hadn't occurred yet. With a mortality rate of almost 100%, it's outbreak would claim the life of ca. 45,000 to 60,000 residents of Harbin and environs. Not only did the outbreak occur at a crucial moment in Chinese history, it took place in a geopolitically highly contested area: Russia, Japan and China all laid claim to controlling this particular region.
Photographic documentation of the Manchurian Plague is almost non-existant. Through good fortune (and guanxi), I am able to offer two sets of images depicting the course of events. Taken together, these two sets constitute the most comprehensive visual account of the Manchurian Plague available anywhere.
The first set is of German provenance. I acquired these original photographs about a year ago. They are captioned "Die Pest in China 1911" (which does not require translation I believe). I assume they were taken some time between January and March, 1911.
The second installment of photographs depicting the very grim realities of the Manchurian Plague is of Russian provenance. The files were generously provided by Mr. Spike Cook in Florida, the owner of this extremely rare album. The Russian captions still await translation. Note: Both galleries contain very graphic images!

Full screen image
Acrobat performer		 New (May 6, 2008): On-line resource: The Chinese-Australian Historical Images in Australia (CHIA) database. This resource "is a catalogue of historical images of Chinese, Chinese immigrants and their descendants held in Australia. It primarily draws on the photographic holdings of the Chinese Museum but also includes photographs from other online archives, publications and private family collections." And "CHIA also includes the beginnings of an encyclopaedia of Chinese-Australian history, complete with bibliography, aimed at providing contextual information for database images." The image files are available on fair-use basis, i.e., "Images in the database can be reproduced for research or study purposes, school or university projects or in family histories." Strangely, some photographs, while described and cataloged, are not available on-line for viewing. In quite a number of cases, links to images are broken. Regarding the themes of the images, there is "a strong focus on photographs from the nineteenth and early twentieth century and also particularly subject matter such as weddings, sports, archways and processions, photographs of particular families."
Access to the CHIA. 



Huachen Auctions
华辰拍卖

Beijing
April 29, 2008
 New (March 28, 2008): This is the 2008 Spring Auction of Huachen's Photographic Division. As with previous auctions, Huachen put out a very interesting and well-produced auction catalog. The catalog contains hundreds of well-researched and annotated photographs of such traditional masters of the medium like Lang Jingshan, Ah Fong, Thomas Child, James Ricalton, etc. Surprisingly, a small batch (22 prints) of architectural photographs taken by Liang Sicheng 梁思成 and Liu Dunzhen 刘墩桢 are for sale as well. The most interesting collections in my personal view are, however, those from more recent years; the images by Yu Quanxing 于全兴 of his Mothers-in-Poverty series (Guizhou, Yunnan 2001-2006) for example are very striking; likewise, the photographs of political rallies and campaigns from the 1960s and 70s are important visual documents reminding us of a level of politization of the individual no longer replicable nor desirable. The accompanying short essays by Li Mei 李媚 on the subject of the political nature of photography in China are informative and detailed. Work by Cui Haiming 崔海鸣 (2007), Lu Di 卢笛 (2007), Ma Liang 马良 (2006) etc. bring the collector into close contact with contemporary themes. The catalog is supplemented with a useful section of artists' and photographers' short bios, in English language. The link to the auction house and the items for sale can be found here.
New (March 28, 2008):  Chinese life in American cities has been documented in a number of visual and textual studies over the years; Arnold Genthe is perhaps the most prominent visual documenter of San Francisco's Chinatown, covering the years shortly after his arrival in 1895; the selection of photographs by an unknown photographer offered here in my Zenfolio Gallery  under the title Chinese Customs - Indelible Photographs was  assembled into a small booklet by the (German?) publishers Hoffmann and Wittemann and published in 1892. This small collection of views includes images of a Dragon "Procession" (Dragon Dance it should be really), offerings to the dead at a western-style cemetary; a girl with bound feet (see left), a funeral train, a fortune teller, a joss house, etc. Many of these themes would be covered by Genthe later on in the first decade of the 1900s again. 
New (March 13, 2008): As a repeat of Vivienne Esders successful auction of historical photographs of China and adjoining regions, another auction is planned for March 19, 2008 (at Yann le Moeul, Salle 9, rue Drouot, 2pm). This auction includes "the Collection of photographic Archives by the diplomat and explorer AUGUSTE FRANCOIS, French consul in China from 1896 to 1904. [...] The photographs, typescripts, glass plates and folioscopes proposed in this sale have been kept by Auguste François' descendants until today." Also listed is important, original work by John Thomson, Milton Miller, Saunders and others. Types of materials on offer are stereoscopes, albumen prints, aristotype prints, panoramas (of Yunnan-fu, i.e. Kunming), tirages argentique (Silver halide prints), and a number of book publications such as by Donald Mennie (his Grandeur of the Gorges), Heinz von Perckhammer (the rare volume Edle Nacktheit in China), etc. Click here to download the catalog of items on offer (66 well-produced pages, in PDF format, ca.10MB)
New (March 12, 2008): In case this resource is unfamiliar, I need to point towards a Chinese site dedicated to discussions and on-line exhibitions of historical Chinese photography. This is a rather comprehensive resource on all aspects of the media's impact in China, from the late Qing period all the way  into the early 1980s, when the country as a whole finally started to embark on the windy path of profound economic, social and urban transformation. 


A word or two on
Two Exhibitions
of Historical Photographs
in Beijing		 New (January 21, 2008):  The China Daily on January 18, 2008, under the heading Capturing a Frame of Mind, reports on an exhibition of Chinese historical family photographs and family-specific photo albums which were curated for an exhibition at Peking University. The oldest photograph dates from 1898. Depicted are not only the entourage of famous political and cultural icons (Zhu De, Mao Zedong, Ren Bishi, Li Xiaomin and others), but also "people of all sorts of political, economic, social and ethnical backgrounds", a fact which - according to Bi Chunping, one of the key exhibit organizers - allows many intimate glimpses into the private lifes of ordinary citizens. 
Another institution in Beijing, Beijing Normal University, was recently celebrating its 90th anniversary, also with an exhibition of historical photographs. This particular exhibition, or, to be precise, one single picture, caused quite a stir. It was taken on Tiananmen Square on August 18, 1966, showing a student of said university by the name of  Song Binbin ceremoniously handing Chairman Mao a red badge, the signifier of the Red Guards. According to the photographer capturing the moment, the Chairman is said to have asked for the student's name, and, deeming Binbin too genteel for the times that would lie ahead, answered that her name should be Song Yaowu 宋要武. The rest, as they say, is history, as On Mao’s 114th Birthday, [the] Past Catches Up to [a] Former Red Guard Leader.


Paiwan		 New (January 10, 2008): Here is a new, very well-constructed resource of pre-war photographs of Taiwan. Called the Gerald Warner Taiwan Image Collection, after a US consul's photographic impressions of urban and rural life in Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule, the collection in fact culls images not only from the original Warner Collection, but also from a great variety of mainly Japanese sources. The oldest of these referenced sources (the Taiwan banzoku zufu 臺灣蕃族圖譜) dates back to 1918; while the most recent material used dates to 2007 (issue of the National Geographic).
From the introduction: "The subjects represented are wide-ranging, including clothing, arboriculture, urban structures, agriculture, religious rituals, topography, highways, parks, and more. These digitized images have been researched and annotated to serve as a web-based encyclopedia of colonial Taiwan's material culture." 
This on-line resource makes extensive and intelligent use of metadata; images can be either browsed or searched by various attributes (location, title, etc.). A zoom-in function provides high resolution image detail. Altogether a very useful resource for those interested in Taiwan's rural and social conditions under Japanese colonial rule.
New (December 9, 2007): After much research and some deliberation I finally decided to put together a gallery of early artistic photography of Nudes in China. As it happened, the story starts in the year 1915, when the Shanghai Fine Arts Academy 上海美术专科学校 is advertising for young women to model in a drawing class, the first of its kind applied to the human figure in Republican China. The very first photographs of nudes, then, were in fact taken within the setting of the classroom and the college, creating rather a stir when released (or leaked) to the public. Classes resumed eventually, and the nude body continued to be painted and drawn and, starting in the late 1920s, photographed artfully by, for example, Long Chin-san 郎静山 (Lang Jingshan), Heinz von Perckhammer and un-named others. Chinese print media (including the advertisement industry) picked up on the theme and incorporated the Nude in their own fashion from the early 1930s onward. The gallery can be found on my Zenfolio site here. 

Huachen Auctions
华辰拍卖

Beijing
December 3, 2007		 New (November 28, 2007): The photography branch of Huachen Auctions Co. for this year's autumn auction has collected a large number of interesting photographs which are being sold on December 3 in Beijing at the Jingguang Center 京广中心. Huacheng was so kind as to furnish me with a catalog of the items for sale, and it is again a very impressive panorama of various important stages in the history of photography in China and abroad. I must praise Huachen for paying special attention to two aspects of photography, namely the coverage of everyday life in China in the 70s to the early 90s (there are some iconic images to be had here), and the inclusion (again) of contemporary, should I say: avant-garde art photography, such as the intriguing work of Lu Jun 陆军 and Yang Yongliang 杨泳梁. Highlights of the category of historical photographs (besides a whole series of images by Lang Jingshan) include a portrait by Saunders of Shen Baozhen 沈葆桢 (15.000-30.000RMB), and a Yamamoto print of Puyi & his bride Wanrong, both in the company of Puyi's English tutor R.F. Johnston (180.000-200.000RMB). A (reprinted) article discussing documentary photography in the cultural, political and "ethical" (伦理) context of contemporary China by Bao Kun is well worth the read. It places the start of the genre into the years 1985/86, which is a tad vexing when compared to the beginnings of the same genre in the west. Recent American photography is represented by Annie Leibovitz (her famous John Lennon/Yoko Ono photograph), Yousuf Karsh, Tom Kelly (Marylin Monroe on Red Velvet) and others. Click on the image to the left to go to Huachen's web site. 

Maggs Publication		 New (November 12, 2007): Titus Boeder, the author of Japanese Photography from the pre-War Period: Photobooks & Prints (Maggs, London 2007, ISBN 978-0-901953-14-8, £35), is an old friend of mine. Working for Maggs Bros., Ltd, Purveyors of Rare Books & Manuscripts by Appointment of her Majesty the Queen (of England), he is also uniquely qualified to compile this annotated and illustrated bibliography of "135 titles comprising over 1000 books and magazines spanning the rich history of the most challenging period of Japanese artistic history." As some of the challenges Japan was facing in this period had to do with China (military challenges, no less), there is much in here which is of relevance to the collector or researcher of things Chinese. In fact a rather sizeable amount of the titles Titus so competently describes deal with Manchuria (Manchukuo) and other parts of China. I would recommend this bibliography to anyone working in the area of visual arts in East Asia. Note that the items listed are all for sale, as a batch, for, well, an undisclosed amount.

CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT		 New (October 29, 2007): At the upcoming conference on 'China' on Display: Past and Present Practices of Selecting, Exhibiting and Viewing Chinese Visual and Material Culture (Leiden University School of Management, Holland, Dec. 6-8, 2007), Oliver Moore will give a talk on Art staged for the Camera in Qing and Republican China.  The  symposium, focusing "on China as a case study to examine how the visual production of non-European cultures has been represented in exhibitions and museum displays", is open to the public. 

Daoist priest (ca. 1930)		 New (September 28, 2007): As is quite well known I believe, one of my oldest interests in China relates to Daoism (or Taoism, as it is still used in much of today's literature on the subject). I recently went on an explorative mission to locate and identify historical photographs having to do with Daoist practice, sites and rites. Elusive as the Dao is in general, this proved to be the expectedly tricky journey. While the journey is far from over, in the meantime I would like to present some preliminary findings, culled from a variety of sources, such as original photographs found in China, western literature (travelogues mostly), and photographic albums in my possession (Perckhammer, Siren, etc.). I will add more materials over time - not all images I see in sources like the newspaper Beiyang huabao 北洋画报 for example are of the quality I'd like. See my Zenfolio gallery on Early Photographs of Daoist Sites and Practice.
Exhibiton announcement
 New (September 14, 2007): Please be aware of the upcoming exhibtion entitled Picturing China, 1870-1950: Photographs from British collections, held at the Brunei Gallery, School of Oriental and African Studies, London. The exhibit opens October 16 and closes Dec. 15, 2007. It is part of an ongoing digital archives project edited by Prof. Robert Bickers with the project title Historical Photographs of China. As the project web site states, the "photographs archived [here] come from the collections of a Chinese diplomat, foreign businessmen, staff of the administrations in the Chinese treaty ports, missionaries, and officials of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service." 
Huachen Auctions
华辰拍卖
Beijing
June 25, 2007
 New (September 14, 2007): It is quite amazing what one can learn from an auction catalog. I have in front of me the Huachen Auctions catalog referring to the Spring 2007 Auction, and it is an editorial masterpiece, featuring almost 750 annotated, well-presented items for sale, a number of appendices, and introductory articles on a variety of subjects. For example, my good friend Tong Bingxue compiled a very useful article on collecting photographs, discussing the value increase of historical photographs over the past years.
The catalog, besides featuring work of western photographers (which is now also collected in China), is otherwise a very useful tour through various stages of the photographic profession in China's history, all the way up to the present in fact, with modern work by Xu Yong 徐勇, Daniel Lee 李小镜, Shu Yang 舒阳 et al. Of great interest, however, are the hitherto much neglected und unresearched decades of the 50s to the 70s, with Hou Bo 侯波, Mao's official (female) "court photographer" occupying a prime position.
New (September 14, 2007): The Dutch International Institute for Asian Studies, in its latest Newsletter (#44, Summer 2007) addresses Asia's Colonial Photographies. Oliver Moore is the author of the article on "Photography in China: a global medium locally appropriated". The online version of the newsletter can be found mounted on the IIAS web site.
Pulling the curtain aside: The visual documentation of Japan's war crimes in China and the continued battle over who owns what piece of history
 New (July 20, 2007): China.org.cn has reported the discovery of a photo album of Japanese war criminals. From the web site: "The album contains well-preserved photographs of 150 high-ranking war criminals, including Takebe Robuzo, who served in the general affairs department of the state council of the puppet Manchuria government in northeast China between 1940 and 1945."
This announcement ties in with a little-known discussion (in fact, a confrontation) between Chinese and Japanese authorities over the display of historical photographs documenting Japanese war crimes in many of China's museums. The Chinese position was expressed by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Qin Gang in the following statement: "The photographs record the horrors of the period to remember history. They are there not to continue hatred, but to prevent tragedies from recurring." For more on this discussion, see here.
New (July 13, 2007): The name Joseph Skarbek may not be familiar to many, but the Centre Culturel Francais in Beijing recently mounted an exhibit of photographs taken by this French railroad engineer in Henan province between 1906 and 1909. I visited this exhibition and was very much intrigued by the quality of the photographs and by the scope of themes on display: a) Customs and daily life; b) Chinese historical architecture; c) The Bian - Luo railway line under construction.
Pictures of this exhibition can be viewed on my Zenfolio Joseph Skarbek gallery site.
Hong Lei 1997
Hong Lei 1997
New (May 13, 2007): Would you pay over 20.000 USD for a single photograph by Lang Jingshan (Long Ching-shan)? Some collectors do, as can be seen here at this Chinese auction site, (Note: loads a bit slow, in Chinese language only) where historical and new photographs were sold very recently. Incidentally, the two most expensive photographs were contemporary, limited edition prints by Hong Lei 洪磊, such as his splendidly morbid, symbolically charged Autumn in the Forbidden City - East Veranda 紫禁城的秋天 - 太和殿东回廊 of 1997 (click on image to the left), fetching well over 65.000 USD each.

A Yamamoto Postcard
 New (May 12, 2007): I wanted to direct the reader's attention to the Historical Chinese Postcard Project: 1896 - 1920. The project has been dormant for over three years, but before it becomes what information scientists call a solitary "information island", I think it very much deserves to be on record here. It is one of Regine Thiriez's projects, and while the reproduced images of the photographic postcards are not as crisp or engaging as one would like (due to their smallish size mainly), the introductory texts written by Thiriez on the subject and the included supplementary research data are extremely helpful.

CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT
At the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, held this year in Boston on March 22-25, panel 107 is dedicated to Photography in Qing China and Meiji Japan. Chaired by Oliver Moore (Leiden University), presentations related to China include
- The Formative Years of Shanghai Photography, 1842-1875 (Regine Thiriez)
- Drumming up Business in early Shanghai Photographic Studios (Oliver Moore)
New (March 1, 2007): I now have had the chance to review Terry Bennett's book Old Japanese Photographs: Collector's Data Guide (Quaritch, London 2006, new 13-digit ISBN 978-0-9550852-4-6, 65 Pounds Sterling). With nine pages the review became a bit longer than I had originally anticipated. The disparate nature of its individual parts notwithstanding, this volume is indeed a resource and tool of the greatest value to collectors, researchers, archivists and historians. Read my review here (PDF format, 150kb).


Friedrich Behme in the Botanical Garden of Singapore, 1903
New (February 6, 2007): One of the more fascinating aspects of photography as a medium lies in its versatility.One can make a perfect living by just shooting weddings these days. Or portraits. Or events, such as a rock concert. A more fundamental use of photography, and one indeed intricately tied to its legitimacy of existence in the first place, lies in its ability to record and to capture, to quantify and to measure. Fractions of time, the flow of movement, the features of plants, the surfaces of the earth, the structure of buildings, the docking of molecules. In short: it is not far-fetched to say that photography was destined, if not invented, to aid and accelerate the sciences (although it soon became its own art form). In a presentation given at a conference in November 2006 I address the question of early scientific photography in China and how this newly acquired font of visual evidence was incorporated into the scientific discourse in Europe. (PowerPoint converted to PDF, 7.5MB). It is a big subject, and this is a first attempt to formulate some general ideas. Comments and suggestions are welcome.
New (January 13, 2007): I recently rediscovered among my possessions a set of fifty lantern slides from ca. 1920. They were published by the Seemann Lichtbildanstalt in Leipzig, as series # CLVIII of their lantern slide series on comprehensive "country studies" (the Latin sub-title of the complete series is bibliotheca cosmographica), to be used throughout the advanced educational system in Germany and Austria in the 1920s and 30s. Lantern slides were once a very popular didactic teaching tool, but most of these collections are of course no longer in use and have either been discarded, or have been lost in other ways. The East Asia set of slides discussed here includes very interesting scenes of China, Manchuria and Korea. Using a Canon 8600F scanner I processed all slides and put them up on my Zenfolio site. The Canon scanner, btw, proved to be up to the task, but nevertheless will be replaced with a more versatile Epson 4990 scanner soon.
New (January 1, 2007): The London antiquarian bookdealer Quaritch contacted me and sent along their latest catalog and newsletter (PDF file) of old photographs for sale. While most of the items are of Japanese provenance (and much of it attributed to Felice Beato), there are a couple of items related to (early) things Chinese, such as a 1873 volume of The Far East with five original pasted-in photographs. What is of much broader interest, however, is the advertised, new publication by Terry Bennett, called Old Japanese Photographs: [A] Collector's Data Guide (Quaritch, London 2006, new 13-digit ISBN 978-0-9550852-4-6, 65 Pounds Sterling). Without having had a chance to see or review this book, it is probably fair to say that it would be highly desirable to have something similar on hand for old Chinese photographs, especially with the market for historical visual documentation being what it is right now in China.
New (November 22, 2006): Back again in Beijing, I visited the Gongwang fu, which features an interesting exhibition of old photographs. I was allowed to take some random pictures of this exhibition, and am posting a selection here. For visual documentation on how the actual, present-day Gongwang fu looks like, please check out my Zenfolio gallery, which includes images of the parts currently under restoration (and not open to the public). While on the subject of the Gongwang fu: A wonderful and very important compilation of historical photographs has just been published on the princely palaces of Qing-dynasty Beijing. Full information on this publication can be found in the bibliography.
New (September 24, 2006): A small photo-diary of Mrs. Nora Dillenbeck, dated 1916, is now fully scanned and on-line as a slide-show at this URL. Dillenbeck was a missionary stationed in Shandong (Tai'an fu). The album chronicles her "tour of duty", starting out on a steamer in San Francisco. Some of the original photographs show some fading, but most of them are still bright and clear.
I picked up this annotated, well-preserved album from a dealer friend in New York a while back, and only noticed the Ithaca-connection when I picked it up again for processing.
New (September 11, 2006): Harvard announced recently that The Rev. Claude L. Pickens, Jr. Collection on Muslims in China would become available on-line through their visual imaging system. The following details may be of interest about this collection:
"Over 1000 photos of Muslims and Christian missionaries working among them in Western China in the 1920s and 1930s form the core of this collection, which is supplemented by several hundred books, pamphlets, broadsides, etc., in several languages. Gift of Rev. Claude L. Pickens, Jr. in memory of Joseph Fletcher, Professor of Chinese and Inner Asian History at Harvard University. The albums and photographs can be viewed in the VIA online catalog. A finding aid to the printed materials can be viewed in the OASIS online catalog." These visual resources are accompanied by Islam in China: A Selected Bibliography of English-Language Publications and various other, supplementary tools.

Fujian exhibit - detail
 New (August 1, 2006): During a recent, month-long trip to China, I came across a couple of very interesting items and events, which I am happy to share on this site:

1) A photo-exhibit featuring the History of Fujian Normal University in the city of Fuzhou, from the beginnings up to the 1950s.

2) A private photograph album of Huang Jiliang, a young Chinese sent abroad to America for studies in the late 1870s or early 1880s. This item is kept behind glass in the Memorial Hall dedicated to the French-Chinese naval battle of 1884, also in the city of Fuzhou. Huang in fact died in this battle, aged only 24. For more on this particular album and its background story see here (PDF-file).

3) The photographic legacy of the renowned architect Liang Sicheng, who documented many archaeological sites and historic buildings throughout central and northern China between 1936 and 1938. As far as I was told, three sets of his images exist: two are in private hands, and one is at Beijing's Tsinghua University Library, where a digital image archive has been created of many of these very interesting images (which number between 1600 and 2000). Note that the Tsinghua University Library link - although pointing in the right direction - does not always work. I was shown the complete Liang-collection at a scholar's private home in late June, and was allowed to take some pictures of parts of the collection. These I put up in a gallery on my new zenfolio.com site, as images 39 - 45.
New (July 26, 2006): I thought I'd mention my new site on China's urban transformation and other subjects. Since this site here is all about the history of photography in China, I thought it prudent to construct a site which features my own (recent) photographs of things Chinese, especially visual documentation on
- Urban planning;
- Modern Chinese art;
- The cities of Beijing, Tianjin and Fuzhou and their surroundings.
- Impressions of Tibet and its borderlands from the mid-80s.
If any of this is of interest please take a look at my zenfolio.com site, which now features over 2000 images.
New (June 14, 2006): Leaving the position of curator of the Wason Collection at Cornell University (after more than 5 years on the job) required moving this web site to the newly founded gatheringmountains.net domain. I hope this will not inconvenience visitors too much, as I have left a referral site up on the Cornell server.
New (May 4, 2006): A new, long anticipated Chinese-language web site has ben put up by its owner, Mr. Tong Bingxue. The (privately managed) on-line Museum of Chinese Photography and Old Photographs Network (中国摄影博物馆暨老照片网) includes exhibits, articles, channels for material exchange, and a letterbox to leave notes and messages. In the "about us" section the author state that this site is devoted to Chinese photography of the late Qing and early Republican era (until ca. 1920). I myself have seen the "off-line", physical collection in Beijing not too long ago and can attest to its authenticity and value. As more images come online, accompanied by proper annotations and the corresponding research, this site will make an important contribution to our understanding of the development of the medium of photography and the modernization of visual arts in China during this critical time period.
New (April 2, 2006): An upcoming auction of historical photographs of China may be of interest. Put together by Viviane Esders in Paris, the auction will take place April 12, 2006 (Yann le Moeul, Salle 69, rue Drouot, 14:30). Click here to download the catalog of items (82 pages, in PDF format). This auction includes very prized and unique items, such as photographs by Jules Itier, John Thomson, Milton Miller, Saunders, Thomas Child, Auguste Francois (his personal photo-album!), Perckhammer, Chin-San Long 郎静山, Cartier-Bresson and others. The results and proceeds of this auction can be seen here (PDF file; all prices in US dollar).
New (Jan.23, 2005): A small archive of images from Beijing, mainly consisting of images from the Thorbecke/Schiff cooperation (here pointing to the marvelous book Peking Studies, published by Kelly & Walsh, Shanghai 1934), and the well-known Perckhammer volume on Peking (Albertus Verl., Berlin 1928), has been made accessible by a group under the direction of Christian Henriot (CNRS). The - searchable - archive contains 215 well annotated images.
New (Nov. 2, 2004): I recently had opportunity to do research on a topic entitled Images of Daoism in Early Photographic Sources. The results of this research were presented at the Boston Conference on Daoism in June 2003. The photographs assembled and discussed in this presentation were taken from a great variety of sources, including Chinese illustrated newspapers like the Liangyou huabao, photographic albums (published and unpublished ones), early international exhibitions, etc.

See here for the PowerPoint presentation of this talk (converted to PDF, opens in separate window).
Also (relatively) new: A dissertation (hitherto still unpublished) by Kerstin Gesell may be of interest:
Title: Imaginary China in Western Representations of the Orient,
Institution: Surrey Institute of Art & Design, 2003 (Note: the institution's new name is now University College for the Creative Arts).
Abstract: This dissertation examines aspects of nineteenth century Chinese photography in the light of recent critical writing around 'Orientalism'. My introduction introduces 'Orientalism' . Three dimensions of 'Orientalism', 'Scenes and Types', 'Violence' and the 'Erotic' are subsequently discussed with reference to Chinese photography. My conclusion assesses the ways in which Chinese photography did, and did not, correspond to prevailing nineteenth century notions of the 'East'.
Notes and Explanations:
This list of titles was started in 1988, when I first became interested in the history of China via the modern visual media of photography. Considering the highly specialized topic, this bibliography nevertheless does contain quite a number of works and collections (365 entries at present), which can be attributed to the fact that recently publishers have become rather interested in reprinting photographic albums on China of the Republican Period or the late Qing period. Besides, Chinese archives have opened up, resulting in the availability of hitherto rather hidden treasures. Note that some of these items listed below are unique, which basically means you will only be able to find one single copy or album, such as is the case for example with Burger's photographic album, an item which was specifically made for and presented to the emperor of Austria, and which is held at the National Library of Austria in Vienna.

My bibliography supplies rather exhaustive data on a variety of issues concerning these albums (which may in fact be reprints or modern publications of, say, postcards printed in Hong Hong in the early thirties). Besides the usual bibliographical description such as Author or editor, date and place of printing etc. I try to trace the fotographers themselves under a biographical heading. The precise number of images is given, their actual (or average) size, whether they are b/w or colour, with which camera(s) they were taken, which film was used, and, above all, what the photographs themselves show. Whereas not every single item (reproduced or original) is described, I still try to give an overall impression of what the fotographer did actually intend to "shoot". So look out for keywords, whether they be of a geographical nature (like "Hong Kong" for example), of a mere topographical nature (like "Baiyunguan 白云观"), or personal names ("Lin Biao 林彪" - the entry will, for example, guide you to the only two published images I know of Lin Biao after his plane crashed so mysteriously on its way to Moscow). Many highly interesting Chinese and some Japanese publications are included here (with Chinese/Japanese characters). Many of them are of a more recent date, but do reflect photographs that were taken well before 1949. A few items (with titles like "100 Years of Photography in Shanghai" or the like), however, also do contain some material of a later date. Overall, the deadline to qualify for the bibliography is still around 1949.
(Note: this "deadline" is under review at present. A few items of great value have been published recently on the Great Leap Forward 大跃进 and the Cultural Revolution 文化大革命 (which I have treated in its own right in my Zenfolio collection); in addition, extremely interesting "new" or "avant-garde" photography is practiced in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong these days, and it would be of geat value to give an introduction and an overview of at least the most important works of this genre).

For comments or suggestions (or contributions!) please do not hesitate to get in touch with me by electronic mail.

On early photography in China see Regine Thiriez' very informative book "Barbarian Lens - Western Photographers of the Qianlong Emperor's European Palaces", published in 1998 by Gordon & Breach in Amsterdam. For more of Thiriez' writing published on the Internet see Creating a User's Guide on Early Photography in China (1999) (PDF-format) or Library Collections and Early Photography in China (Bulletin of the International Association of Orientalist Librarians vol. 44, 2000). Also, see Thiriez' article on Photography and Portraiture in Nineteenth-Century China, in the journal East Asian History 17/18 (1999), pages 77-102.

Worth noting is the Giles Pickford Collection at the Australian National Library (a collection associated with Herbert Giles, no less).

Here is an example of how early advertisement for photographic equipment in a Shanghai based magazine looked like. Note that these items were sold in a "pharmacy" (yaofang) in those days. The scan is taken from The Chinese Scientific and Industrial Magazine - (Gezhi huibian) vol.2, no.3, Shanghai 1892. (file size: 292 kb).

The bibliography is arranged in alphabetical order of the names of authors, editors or corporate bodies. Anonymous works are listed first and are arranged according to title. Just click on any character in the upper frame and you will be taken to the first corresponding item.
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Thomas H. Hahn ©
July 2009