Post on 24-Feb-2023
While China suffered defeat at the hands of the British
in the First Opium War, the West, through gaining access to
numerous treaty ports and concessions from the Qing
government, was able to gain a glimpse into a society few up
until that time had ever seen. Utilizing the new medium of
photography, with old restrictions on trade and freedom of
movement suddenly gone, Westerners, armed with camera’s,
were able to travel beyond the confines of the ‘Thirteen
Factories’ and treaty ports, penetrating outlying rural
areas and coming into contact with rural Chinese.i Along
with French, British, and later American trade ships,
arrived wave after wave of Western travelers, adventurers,
explorers, artists, and missionaries eager to explore and
document a world few Westerners had ever seen before.
Various professional and amateur photographers, eager to
experiment with a technology that was only some twelve years
1
old, would go on to successfully chronicle the last gasps of
a way of life on the brink of disappearing. However,
throughout their efforts to photograph everyday life in
China, Western photographers would often attempt to apply
their own notions and biases about life to define the
subjects and scenes they photographed.ii
From 1842 to 1918, the history of photography can be
broken down into three distinct eras: the first images of
China, when amateur photography began to evolve into well-
organized professional communities from 1842 to 1859; the
Second Opium War and its impact on the already pre-existing
biases of Western photographers, from 1860 to 1910; and
finally the 1911 revolution and its aftermath, from 1911 to
1918. Through the study of Western photographers and their
work in China, the treatment of Native Chinese and Western
misunderstandings of various aspects of Chinese society can
be better understood.
From their arrival in China, many Western photographers
often thought of China as a far eastern ‘middle kingdom’,
often holding onto a romanticized and often idealized
2
version of Chinese society. From the first images taken of
China, at the end of the First Opium War, this romanticizing
of China by the West quickly becomes apparent. However, in
attempting to analyze the biases of the West towards China,
it is important to not forget that, for many, both in China
and the West, photography as a way of capturing images was
still relatively new. July of 1842 saw the first recorded
use of a camera on Chinese soil when two assistants to the
British envoy Sir Henry Pottinger, Dr. Woosnam and Major
Malcom, took daguerreotypes at Jiaoshan, Jiangsu Province,
along the banks of the Yangtze River, during the closing
stages of the First Opium War. All photographic evidence
regarding the event involving Woosnam and Major Malcom has
sadly not been preserved, with the only evidence being in
the form of journal entries. Harry Parkes, an assistant to
Pottinger, would record the event in his journal: “Saturday,
16th of July, 1842, Major Malcom and Dr. Woosnam took a
sketch of the place to-day on their daguerreotype. I cannot
understand it at all: but on exposing a highly polished
steel plate to the sun by the aide of some glass or other it
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takes the scene before you on to the plate and by some
solution it will stay on the plate for years. It is no use
me trying to describe it, it is quite a mystery.”iii Many of
the first images taken during this time have not survived.
Where images do exist, the names of the subjects and the
photographers who captured them have been all but lost.
Those images that have survived from this early period
convey a relatively romanticized view of not only daily life
but also of China’s government officials. Through looking at
many of these early images, it can be easily seen how the
idealism and romance of the Orient captured by many of these
early Western Photographers and how through 1842 to 1919
this romantic idealism evolved.
Numerous itinerant photographers peppered the Chinese
coast, many living in Canton and other treaty ports. ivIt
isn’t until 1843 that what would become known as the
i Terry Bennett History of Photography in China 1842-1860, ed. Anthony Payne and Lindsey Stewart (London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd, 2009), vii-viii.
ii Terry Bennett, History of Photography in China 1842-1860, ed. Anthony Payne andLindsey Stewart (London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd, 2009), xi-xiii.
iii Terry Bennet, History of Photography in China 1842-1860, ed. Anthony Payne andLindsey Stewart (London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd, 2009), 1-2.
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earliest photographs of China were taken by a French customs
inspector named Jules Itier.v Journeying to China in
December of 1843, as part of a French Trade mission, Itier
documented the conclusion of the treaty of Whampoa and took
a number of photographs of Native Chinese life and scenery
in and around the region of Guandong. Itier’s work would
come to be regarded as among the earliest preserved images
of China. Much of Itier’s work includes subjects that would
come to dominate the portfolios of many Western
photographers in China from the early 1840s until about
1850s. Subjects such as Chinese architecture, wealthy
Chinese, Qing government officials, landscapes, and elements
of Chinese daily life all fell under the lenses of the early
photographic community. Itier would remain in China until
November of 1844, during which time he was able to conduct a
large breadth of work based primarily between Canton and the
port of Macau. vi
5
Fig. 1
During his time in Macau, Itier would write in his
Journal D’une Voyage en Chine (1848), “I have spent two days
taking the most remarkable views of Macau with a
daguerreotype camera. Passers-by have lent themselves with
the best will in the world to my exacting demands, and many
Chinese have agreed to pose; but I had to show them the
inside of the camera, just as the image was reflected on the
polished glass – then there were exclamations of surprise
and endless laughter.”vii Itier’s journal entries serve as a
iv Terry Bennet, History of Photography in China 1842-1860, ed. Anthony Payne andLindsey Stewart (London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd, 2009), 19-20.
v Terry Bennet, History of Western photographers in China 1842-1860, ed. Anthony Payne and Lindsey Stewart (London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd, 2009), 3-5.
vi Terry Bennet, History of Western photographers in China 1842-1860, ed. Anthony Payne and Lindsey Stewart (London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd, 2009), 5-6.
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telling example of how many early Western photographers in
China treated their Chinese subjects, often according those
they photographed a surprising level of individual respect.
While traveling in Macau, Itier remarks on the wonders he
has seen and the diversity of the city. It can be said that,
overall, Itier is polite with those native Chinese he
encounters.
However, in his journal entry from this time period, we
can ascertain his true sympathies. “I have spent all day
taking with the daguerreotype camera different views of
Macau and its surroundings; the quays of the praja-grande, the
great pagoda, the inner port, the streets of the bazaar,
have all offered me interesting subject matter. Today I
again found some helpful Chinese who agreed to stand
motionless in groups, on the condition that they could
afterwards see the image reflected on the polished glass.
Their astonishment was not, however, profound. It was more
like the vague curiosity shown by children when engaged with
vii Terry Bennet, History of Western photographers in China 1842-1860, ed. Anthony Payne and Lindsey Stewart (London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd, 2009), 3.,
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some new object there are many wonders which amaze only
scholars or thoughtful minds, and the wonders of
daguerreotype are in this category.”viii From his writings,
we can see how Itier succumbs to a form of romanticism with
regards to his encounters with ordinary Chinese. Through his
remarks, Itier also seems to reinforce Western notions of
class superiority, holding to a recurring theme of Western
nations serving as a bastion of civilization to educate the
lower classes of society.
In October of 1844 at the port of Whampoa (Huangpu),
twelve miles from Canton, Itier was able to photograph the
French and Chinese envoys upon the conclusion of a treaty
signed between France and the Qing Empire aboard the French
warship L’Archemide.ix The photograph itself was one of the
first interior photographs, although not much can really be
ascertained of the details of the ship’s interior, given
that it was coming on to evening and the light quality was viii Terry Bennet, History of Western Photographers in China 1842-1860, ed. Anthony Payne and Lindsey Stewart (London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd, 2009), 4.
ix Terry Bennet, History of Western photographers in China 1842-1860, ed. Anthony Payne and Lindsey Stewart (London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd., 2009), 3-4.
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not particularly adequate for Itier’s camerawork. The
photograph, despite the inadequacies in quality, is still
worth mentioning as one of the first photos of its kind to
be taken in this particular type of setting as well as being
one of the first to document a formal delegation between
Qing officials and a foreign power.
Fig. 2.
Itier would write of the event, in his journal, “We
returned to the bridge and everyone was assembled again at
the stern. I took advantage of this to take with the
dagerrotype camera a group consisting of Ky-ing, the
Ambassador, the admiral, and the first secretary of the
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Embassy and the interpreter. After that I took separately
two portraits of Ky-ing and Houan that I intended to keep;
but I was clumsy and showed them the pictures, and after
that it was impossible for me to resist their entreaties.
The viceroy smiled graciously at his picture, then looked at
me as he waved his hands he cried: ‘to-sie, to-sie’ (‘thank you,
thank you’); as for Houan who had brought writing equipment,
he wrote some phrases on a fan which he presented to me
after adding his signature.”x In his journals, Itier reveals
a depth of respect towards his subject in a way which would
become increasingly less pronounced within the Western
photographic community especially into the later 1850s.
The general narrative of photography during this time
was highly reflective of the surroundings in which the
photographers found themselves, thus many of the photographs
from 1846 to 1856 consist of scenes from China’s coast.
Based in ports such as Canton, Macau, Shanghai, Nanking, and
Hong Kong, many from the Western photographic community were
xTerry Bennet, History of Western photographers in China 1842-1860, ed. Anthony Payne and Lindsey Stewart (London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd., 2009), 3.
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able to settle themselves and eventually establish their own
studios.xi
By the end of 1842 into the early 1850s early
photography in China greatly expanded under a number of
prominent photographers. Among them was George R. West who,
from 1844 until his early death in 1859, traveled throughout
China as both an accomplished watercolor artist and
photographer.xii Mr. West is largely noted for being the
first professional photographer in China, and served as one
of the first photographers to bring China to the Western
perspective. Born in 1825, George West began life as a wood
engraver for local newspapers in and around Raleigh, North
Carolina. With the invention of photography in 1836, he
quickly took to the new technology, gradually rising to
prominence as “the first man to make salable Daguerreotypes
in 1842 in Washington D.C.” As the First Opium War came to a
close, West applied for and was given the post of official xi Terry Bennet, “The first Studios” in History of Western Photographers in China 1842-1860, ed. Anthony Payne and Lindsey Stewart (London: Bernard QuaritchLtd., 2009), 9-28.
xii Terry Bennet, History of Western photographers in China 1842-1860, ed. Anthony Payne and Lindsey Stewart (London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd., 2009), 9.
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artist of a diplomatic mission to China led by Caleb
Cushing, the United States’ first ambassador to China. On
the 23rd of February, 1842, Cushing’s mission arrived in
Macau harbor where West immediately set about sketching
scene of Chinese life and various diplomatic events. Besides
serving as an artist, Cushing employed West as a messenger
to carry the Envoy’s correspondences to the Chinese. Despite
being kept busy, West still found time to paint and was able
to produce a large number of watercolors, many of which
would come to be stolen on his trip home.xiii
Fig. 3
xiii Terry Bennet, History of Western photographers in China 1842-1860, ed. Anthony Payne and Lindsey Stewart (London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd., 2009), 10-13.
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While none of George West’s photographs have survived,
his paintings have remained relatively well preserved. In
West’s ‘Temple…’ (above) one can see his attention to detail
and focus with regards to capturing and documenting his
surroundings. It’s unclear whether West used his camera as
an aid to his own painting or for simply taking pictures of
local residents.xiv By December of 1844 West had managed to
establish himself as one of the first successful commercial
photographers in Canton and eventually established one of
the first photography studios in Hong Kong in 1845. As a
commercial photographer, George West specialized in
portraiture, photos of local Westerners and Chinese elites
as well as their families. West’s studio was in business for
only a few months when, in 1851, he returned to the United
States.xv Despite West’s brief tenure as a studio
photographer, he was, through his position as official
artist, able to accompany a number of American led
expeditions into the Chinese interior while maintaining a
presence all along the coast, travelling between Hong Kong,
Macau, and Canton.xvi In concentrating on aspects of Chinese
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architecture and nature, West invokes an almost
transcendentalist empathy with the regards to Qing society
in both his photos and paintings.
As the Western photographic community further evolved
and matured, the establishment of permanent photo studios
began to be seen along the coast, with the first studios
opening in Shanghai in 1858. While many of these early
studios were in fact quite small, they represented a growing
shift in the collective attitudes of many Western
photographers toward their art and, as a result, the
subjects they photographed. One particular result of the
rise of permanent studios came in an increasing demand from
Western consumers for commercial photographs of China. Many
of these early commercial photographs which attempted to
provide the West with a better glimpse into Chinese society
xiv Terry Bennet, History of Western photographers in China 1842-1860, ed. Anthony Payne and Lindsey Stewart (London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd., 2009), 10.
xv Terry Bennet, History of Western photographers in China 1842-1860, ed. Anthony Payne and Lindsey Stewart (London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd., 2009), 13.
xvi Terry Bennet, History of Western photographers in China 1842-1860, ed. Anthony Payne and Lindsey Stewart (London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd., 2009), 11.
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often came across as portraying China and the Chinese people
in a light that was more negative than positive. While
stereotyping and racism towards China as a whole would not
become blatant until the outbreak of war in 1860, through
the commercial images produced by early photo-studio
communities, we can already see a portrayal of China that
reinforces Western perceptions of China as backward and
Native Chinese as ‘child-like’. xvii
The eruption of the Second Opium War in 1860 served to
reinforce pre-existing biases against the Chinese. Many
earlier photographers, who had, up until this time, embraced
a romantic and seemingly simplified view of China, saw the
opinions of Westerners, particularly in the treaty ports,
succumb to an abrupt shift in sentiment which ultimately
would come to herald the final deterioration of Chinese
relations with the West.xviii Despite the romanticized
notions many Western photographers had towards China, many xvii Terry Bennet, “First Shanghai studios” in History of Western photographers in China 1842-1860, ed. Anthony Payne and Lindsey Stewart (London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd., 2009), 29-42.
xviii David Harris, Of Battle and Beauty: Felice Beato's Photographs of China (Santa Barbra: California Academy of Sciences, 2000), 27.
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Chinese did not take kindly to foreign incursion and
resented the occupation of their country and considered it
an affront to national pride. As the later 1840s gave way to
the 1850s, tension between China and Great Britain again
began to deteriorate as Britain, frustrated by the Qing
government’s aversion to free-trade, began calls to the
Chinese governing authority in Canton. In June of 1859,
following the siege of Canton by a British garrison, a joint
British and French delegation was sent to the Qing capital
at Peking to negotiate a form of peace. The delegation was
met with heavy resistance from Qing fortified positions
forcing the delegation to retreat with 430 British and
French casualties. The incident, a decisive victory for the
Chinese, served as the first major conflict to mark the
beginning of the Second Opium War. xix
xix Terry Bennet, “Second Opium War: Introduction” in History of Western photographers in China 1842-1860, ed. Anthony Payne and Lindsey Stewart (London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd., 2009), 81-88.
16
Fig. 4
The Second Opium War marked a new period for the
photographic communities in China’s treaty ports. With the
onset of war, came a new wave of Western photographers eager
to finally penetrate the little seen regions of interior
China. Often arriving on the boot heels of diplomatic envoys
and military forces, many of these new photographers, shaped
by popular anti-Chinese sentiment, and a belief in the
Western superiority, would come to represent a profound
shift when juxtaposed against the romantic and idealism of
the previous decade. A great majority of the images taken
during the conflict are of military campaigns and the
17
aftermaths of various battles. It is during this period that
the field of battlefield photography really comes into
being, giving rise to a new type of artist, the wartime
photographer.
One of the first, and most famous, of these early
wartime photographers, Felice Beato, arrived in China in
1860. Much of his work in China covers the end of the Second
Opium War and China’s defeat against the allied powers of
Great Britain and France. Born in Venice in 1832, but moving
to the British protectorate of Corfu as a youth, Felice
Beato first began to study photography in 1851, and worked
over several years to assemble a vast network of contacts in
all levels of the British Armed Forces. Through his contacts
Beato was able to take some of the first photographs of East
Asia, documenting the aftermath of the Sepoy mutiny of 1857
in India. xx
In March of 1860, Beato arrived in Hong Kong to
photograph the Anglo-French military expedition in China.
xx Terry Bennet, “Images of War” in History of Western photographers in China 1842-1860, ed. Anthony Payne and Lindsey Stewart (London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd., 2009), 141-147.
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While in Hong Kong, Beato wasted little time, and began
photographing the city and its surroundings as far as
Canton, but it is in his work in China proper that Beato
would gain his greatest renown. Beato met Charles Wirgman,
an English artist and correspondent for the London News
Illustrated. Beato and Wirgman would accompany the Anglo-
French forces on their way to Peking, documenting the
campaign as they went.xxi
It can be ascertained from his work that Beato more
than likely held to views similar to those of others of his
time. It is hard to imagine that the young photographer
would not succumb to racist attitudes which were shared by a
great many within the middle class of British society. No
real evidence yet exists to understand Beato’s feelings
towards the scenes he photographed, however, in looking at
Beato’s work in China, it can be understood that through his
photographs one can see a stark realism with regards to the
reality of war. Documenting the campaign, Beato pays
xxi David Harris, “ Beato in China” in Of Battle and Beauty: Felice Beato's Photographs of China (Santa Barbra: California Academy of Sciences, 2000), 24-26.
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particular attention to the Taku forts. Many of his images
pay particular attention to the aftermath of sporadic
battles between the Qing and allied forces. Beato would
personally publish many of his works in albums to be sent as
gifts to the Generals and commanding officers in the allied
forces.xxii According to David Harris, in his book Of Battle and
Beauty: Felice Beato’s Photographs of China, “All of Beato’s work in
China functioned as an essential and integral component of
British imperialism through its ability to both shape public
perceptions and reinforce cultural stereotypes of China and
its people.”xxiii
xxii David Harris, Of Battle and Beauty: Felice Beato's Photographs of China (Santa Barbra: California Academy of Sciences, 2000), 25.
xxiii David Harris, “Photographing for the British” in Of Battle and Beauty: Felice Beato's Photographs of China (Santa Barbra: California Academy of Sciences, 2000), 27-28.
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Fig.5
Besides capturing scenes of war, Beato was also able to
capture a number of images which have since served as vital
pieces of historical record. Upon reaching the walls of
Peking, Beato was able to photograph the summer palace, the
private residence of the Emperor of China, before it was
looted and set alight by British forces under orders from
the British ambassador Lord Elgin as revenge for the
murdering of allied prisoners.xxiv As the war came to a
close, Beato spent most of October 1860 photographing the
xxiv Terry Bennett, History of Photography in China 1842-1860, ed. Anthony Payne and Lindsey Stewart (London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd, 2009), 156-159.
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Qing capital of Peking until, on October 24th, 1860, Beato
was on hand to record the signing of the peace treaty
between Britain and China which would officially end the
Second Opium War. Unfortunately for Beato, his attempt to
document the treaty signing failed horribly as the light
quality necessary for his work was inadequate.
China’s delegate to the meeting, the Emperor’s brother,
the 1st Prince Kung, was terrified upon seeing Beato’s
device, having never before seen a camera. As Sir James H.
Grant would write, “In the midst of the ceremony, the
indefatigable Signor Beato, who was very anxious to take a
good photograph of ‘the signing of the treaty,’ brought
forward his apparatus, placed it at the entrance door, and
directed the large lens of the Camera full against the
breast of the unhappy Prince Kung. The royal brother looked
up in a state of terror, pale as death, and with his eyes
turned first to Lord Elgin and then to me, expecting every
moment to have his head blown off by the infernal machine
opposite him – which really looked like a sort of mortar,
ready to disgorge its terrible contents into his devoted
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body. It was explained to him that no such evil design was
intended, and his anxious pale face brightened up when he
was told that his portrait was being taken. The treaty was
signed, and the whole business went off satisfactorily,
except as regards to Signor Beato’s picture, which was an
utter failure, owing to want of proper light.”xxv This
incident serves as a prime example of how Westerners were
largely unable or unwilling to understand the cultural and
social practices of China. As a result of the conflict and
due in part to outside pressures, the Western photographic
community
began to disconnect from their often native subjects.
During 1860, Western Photographers had largely abandoned all
efforts to understand Chinese social and cultural life in
their desire to earn money through the commercialization of
photography in China.
Despite this initial failure, Beato did manage to win
Prince Kung’s permission to photograph him in November of
xxv Terry Bennett, History of Photography in China 1842-1860, ed. Anthony Payne and Lindsey Stewart (London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd, 2009), 151-154.
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1860. Beato’s photograph of the Prince Kung, is the first to
be taken of a member of the Chinese Imperial Family.xxvi
With the war over, Beato left Peking for Hong Kong, where he
sold most of his images to Western travellers and soldiers
before leaving for Japan in the summer of 1863.xxvii
Fig. 6
xxvi Terry Bennett, History of Photography in China 1842-1860, ed. Anthony Payne and Lindsey Stewart (London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd, 2009), 154.
xxvii Terry Bennett, History of Photography in China 1842-1860, ed. Anthony Payne and Lindsey Stewart (London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd, 2009), 162.
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Beato’s time in China would largely signal a new age
of expansion for Western photographers. No longer restricted
by the confines of the treaty ports, foreigners had now
achieved freedom of movement throughout all of the Empire.
Despite an increased freedom of movement and the creation of
a foreign legation quarter in Peking, the bulk of the
Western photographic community remained on the Coast. In mid
to later 1860s, the colony of Hong Kong, as a result of the
end of the Second Opium War, expanded immensely as
increasing numbers of Westerners arrived in China eager to
explore lands they had until then only read about or
glimpsed in the photographs and engravings of earlier
photographers. Lured by the romantic attraction of the
Orient, these new professional photographers were often at
odds with the photographers of earlier decades, in a large
part, because these new photographers held that Chinese
customs and socio-economic structures were not worthy of
understanding and were inferior when compared to more
entrenched beliefs and practices of Imperial powers such as
25
France and Great Britain. This change in sentiment heralded
a major shift in the Western photographic community.xxviii
During the 1890s and early 1900s, few Western
photographers in China, regardless of their sympathies,
could have imagined the sheer speed under which China was to
arise anew. In 1899 the Boxer Rebellion began, unleashing
yet another wave of anti-Sino sentiment from the Western
powers. The foreign legations in Peking were besieged by
bands of so-called ‘Boxers’, bands of Native Chinese
disgruntled by the occupation of their country by the West
and by China’s status on the world stage. The Boxer
rebellion was not widespread, and many Governor-Generals
ignored the Qing government’s edict of support and made
every attempt to ensure foreigners were not harmed. Thus,
the ‘rebellion’ was largely isolated to a few small
incidences with the bulk of the conflict occurring in and
around Peking. Throughout the war, Western photographers
xxviii Terry Bennett, “Studio activity in Hong-Kong” in History of Photography in China 1842-1860, ed. Anthony Payne and Lindsey Stewart (London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd, 2009), 163-193.
26
along the coast found themselves largely unhindered by the
conflict. xxix
By the time of the Boxer uprising, Western
photographers represented an odd dichotomy which flowed
against the stream of majority of racist opinion in the
West. By 1880, most Western photographers had largely
abandoned many of their previously held romantic takes on
Chinese life, succumbing to the stereotypes and racism
through which many Western travelers viewed the natives. As
the Boxer rebellion waned, eventually compelling the Western
powers, France, Great Britain, the United States and others
to once again storm Peking, the harsh sentiments of Western
photographers in China towards Native Chinese soon
evaporated almost as quickly as it had come. xxx
Although the shift towards the outright dismissal of
the Chinese as ‘inferior’ to the West was not reflective of
the entire Western photographic community, the sentiment didxxix Hanchao Lu, The birth of a Republic: Francis stafford’s photographs of China’s 1911 revolution and beyond ( Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2010), 3-4.
xxx Terry Bennett, “Concluding remarks” in History of Photography in China: Western Photographers 1861-1879 (London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd, 2009), 313-314.
27
find itself reflected in the work of many photographers from
this time. Many images from this period concentrate on
relatively neutral subject matter, although the capturing of
conflicts such as the Boxer uprising was still at the
forefront of many photographers’ work. Western photographers
had come, by this time, to regard Qing society as little
more than a curiosity that conveyed the exotic to many new
Westerners much in the same way as the British Raj had done
for the people of Britain. Many images from this period
consist predominately of candid scenes and tourist views of
Peking and Tientsin, including foreign legations and private
residences of American, British and other diplomatic
personnel and contemporary views of the Boxer Rebellion.
Other subjects covered by Western photographers during this
time were images of the international relief force of
soldiers and sailors that came to the aid of the besieged
foreign delegations in Peking and elsewhere.xxxi
Few Western photographers concentrated on Chinese daily
life, choosing instead to focus on various members of the
Qing court and the palaces, as the Qing Empire outwardly
28
seemed to be on its last leg. The focus of Western
photographers with regards to their work was more reflective
of changing Western attitudes towards China and its people.
Despite outward appearances, the Qing Government had
made some improvements, sending Chinese students overseas to
Britain and America, as well as modernizing the army;
numerous attempts were also made to modernize China’s
education system, industrial complexes, and government.
These efforts, while relatively successful, were inadequate
toward staving off the Empire’s collapse and more than not
inevitably hastened its demise.
In 1910 the Western photographic community in China had
expanded into a full fledged industry with thousand of
photo-studios all over the coast, from the capital of Peking
to the port of Canton. Commercial photography of China was
in high demand and Western communities along the coast and
xxxi “Robert Henry Chandless: Photographs of the Boxer Uprising,” University libraries:Digital collections, http://content.lib.washington.edu/chandlessweb/index.html (accessed May 7, 2011).
? Terry Bennett, “Commercial Images” in History of Photography in China 1842-1860, ed. Anthony Payne and Lindsey Stewart (London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd, 2009), 53-66.
29
in Hong Kong were huge demand. Despite this, the romantic
idealism that became the drive of many early photographers
persisted in many of the images from this time.xxxii
Francis E. Stafford was quite possibly one of the last
to espouse the idealist romantic notion of the earlier
generation of photographers. Arriving in China in 1909, two
years before the revolution, Stafford worked as a staff
photographer for the Commercial Press, a publishing house
based in Shanghai. Partly because of his status as a
Westerner, thus having to political ties to either side of
the conflict, and because of his company’s large readership,
Stafford was allowed access to the military of both sides.
As a result of his unhindered access to the revolution,
Stafford’s work provides a look into a critical juncture in
the history of modern China.xxxiii
While the bulk of Stafford’s work is focused on the
military and government, Stafford does not shy away from
showing the harsh poverty and deprivations faced by many
xxxii
xxxiii Hanchao Lu, The birth of a Republic: Francis stafford’s photographs of China’s 1911 revolution and beyond (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2010), 7-8.
30
Chinese in Qing China’s rural communities. Stafford’s work
is unique in that it offers a glimpse of a part of China
that is very much glossed over by the coastal Western
photographic communities, who had largely ignored the plight
of the rural Chinese. But what stands out most with regards
to Stafford’s work is the respect and dignity he confers to
those he photographs. What is remarkably absent from
Stafford’s work is any hint of racism and inferiority. This
could be due to Stafford being an American in a world that
was, for a long period, dominated by the British and French.
In his photographing of China’s peasantry, Stafford portrays
Native Chinese in a profoundly human light which, compared
to blind jingoism of Beato’s work, is like a breath of fresh
air. xxxiv
xxxiv Hanchao Lu, The birth of a Republic: Francis stafford’s photographs of China’s 1911 revolution and beyond (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2010), 154-155.
31
Fig. 7
Stafford, is a notable figure within the Western
photographic community in China largely because he
represents a form of return to the romantic idealism of
earlier Western photographers which had up until as late as
1900 been pushed to the sidelines by changing western
attitudes, which were, more often than not, critical and
dismissive of China as well as Native Chinese. What makes
Stafford’s work even more unique is that, while Stafford may
have been a romantic idealist, he was also extremely
respectful towards his hosts, usually Qing or revolutionary
generals and military leaders, and took a largely 32
sympathetic approach towards chronicling the plight of both
rural and urban Chinese.
While Stafford may have been highly respectful of the
Chinese, he shares a particular commonality with early
photographers, that of demonstrating a lack of understanding
of certain events. In his photos of the Wuchang uprising and
its aftermath, Stafford applies his own Western
understanding to describe the events he photographed. While
it is understood in through his images and commentary that
Stafford did not intend to demean the Chinese, his attempts
to apply Western concepts to events in China is hugely
evident through his images of the Wuchang uprising which
Stafford works very hard to convey comparisons to the
revolutions of Western Europe.xxxv While Staffords attempts
are very honest and through the photographers work lingers
an attempt to understand and explain the conflict to his
readers. Yet, despite his best efforts, Stafford fails to
xxxv Hanchao Lu, “On the eve of revolution” in The birth of a Republic: Francis stafford’s photographs of China’s 1911 revolution and beyond (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2010), 12-42.
33
really break the mold of past photographers and attempt to
understand the conflict from the Chinese perspective.
Like those who came before him, Stafford succumbs to
the same misconceptions of previous generations. Yet, at
the same time, the China Stafford presides over is not the
China of Itier, West, or Beato. China, at the time of
Stafford’s tenure, was a country on the edge of radical
transformative change. Shanghai, the home of Stafford’s
employer, Commercial
34
Press, was, by 1910-11, a major port city thriving in both
ethnic and cultural diversity. Despite still being separated
by legations and quarters, ‘Westerners only’ gardens and
districts, Native Chinese and Westerners were able to
interact more than any other period in history.xxxvi xxxvi Hanchao Lu, “A Society in Transition” in The birth of a Republic: Francis stafford’s photographs of China’s 1911 revolution and beyond (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2010), 135-174.
List of Illustrations
Figure 1. Jules Itier, View to the west of Canton, 1844. Daguerrotype. Musee
francais de la photographie, Bievres.
2. Jules Itier. The plenipotentiaries on the steamer L’Archimede at the time of the signing of the treaty between France and China at Whampoa on 24th October 1844. Daguerrotype. Musee francais de la photographie, Bievres.
35
From 1909-1919, Western photographers were able to
finally become more receptive to Chinese overtures for
dialogue. Through engaging with the subjects they
photographed, either by word of mouth or other means,
3. George R. West, watercolor. Temple Where the Treaty of Wanghia Was Signed. 1845. watercolour. Caleb Cushing Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
4. William Saunders. Opium smoker. 1867. Albumen silver print from glass negative. Robert O. Dougan Collection.
5. Felice Beato. Interior of the English entrance to the North Fort on 21st August 1860. Albumen silver print from glass negative.
6. Felix Beato, Prince Kung, Brother of the Emperor of China, signer of the treaty, November 2, 1860. Albumen silver print from glass negative.
7. Francis Stafford, Cutting off the queue of a Chinese man.1912. Albumen silver print from glass negative.
36
Western photographers were able to see China in a totally
new and less racially conscious light. While
misunderstandings between Western photographers and Native
Chinese would continue to persist well into 1919, the tone
through which Western photographers portrayed China and the
Works Consulted
Bennett, Terry. History of Photography in China 1842-1860. London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd., 2009.
Bennett, Terry. History of Photography in China: Western Photographers 1861-1879. London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd., 2010.
Lacoste, Anne, and Fred Ritchin, eds. Felice Beato: A Photographer on the Eastern Road. Los Angeles: Getty Research institute, 2010.
Bennet, Terry. “The Search For Rossier - Early Photographer of China.” The PhotoHistorian-Journal of the Historical Group ofthe Royal Photographic Society (December 2004): 1-5.
Bennet, Terry, and John Hannvay. Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography. New York: Routledge Taylor &Francis Group, 2008.
Pearce, Nick, Photographs of Peking, China 1861-1908: An inventory and description of the Yetts collection at the University of Durham. Lampeter:The Edwin Mellen Press Ltd., 2005.
Harris, David, Of battle and beauty : Felice Beato’s photographs of China. Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1999.
Kenny, Keith. “Newspaper Photography in China.” p.h.D. diss.,Michigan State University, 1991.
Producer & Director, Ann Hu. 2000. Shadow Magic. China: Sony Pictures Classics.
37
Chinese would take on a more appreciative and less critical
bent as China entered the 20th century.
From their arrival in 1842, Western photographers first
images of China were largely the product of romantic
idealism, a view of China not as a nation, but as the
‘Orient’, something exotic and intoxicating to Westerners
who had until that time, only heard of in newspapers and
books . Much of the work from this early period comes to
reflect this notion with real little regards for reality. It
Lu, Hanchao. The Birth of a Republic: Francis Stafford's Photographs of China's 1911 Revolution and Beyond. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2010.
Thiriez, Regine. Barbarian Lens: Western Photographers of the Qianlong Emperor's European Palaces (Documenting the Image Series). Australia: Routledge, 1998.
Cody, Jeffrey W, and Frances Terpak, eds. Brush and Shutter: Early Photography in China. 1st Edition ed. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2011.
Yao, Betty. China: Through the Lens of John Thomson (1868-1872). Bilingual ed. Emeryville: River Books Press Dist A C,2010.
Carrington, L., and Cameron, Nigel Goodrich. The Face of China as seen by photographers and travelers, 1860-1912. Millerton, N.Y.: Aperture, 1978
Bulfoni, Clara, and Anna Pozzi. Lost China: The Photographs of Leone Nani. Milan: Skira, 2004.
Hudson, James. “Discontinuous Elements: Nationalism, Poverty, and Representation in Sidney Gamble's Photographs of China.” The Chinese Historical Review 18, no. 1 (2011): 56-80.
38
should be noted that, from their contact with both everyday
Chinese and Qing officials, Western photographers utilized a
quiet respect for their subjects and that the stereotypes
and intense racism that would come to characterize the
Western popular imagination of the Chinese was, atleast
during this early period, not yet formulated and would only
mature years later during the years directly leading up
to1859. With the outbreak of the Second Opium war in 1860,
Western attitudes towards China began to shift, no longer
were Chinese subjects treated with the same form of respect
and cordiality as relations between the Western photographic
community and China deteriorated. During the Second Opium
Western photographers found themselves under pressure from
Western popular attitudes at home to take a side in the
conflict thus making any efforts to maintain some form of
neutrality towards what was happening around them
increasingly challenging particularly towards the end of the
war and China’s defeat. Many Western photographers in
response to pressure often found themselves siding with
39
their home country to the dismay of their Chinese
colleagues.
From 1860 to 1910, Western photography in China had
become more or less completely commercialized. The
photographs from this period were largely staged against a
cloth backdrop and, more often than not, depicted idealized
stereotypical images of everyday Chinese life. Little
attention or care was given to reality and many of the
photos from this period are noted for being highly
conductive in fostering negative public opinion in the West
towards China and the Chinese. However, despite the
overarching commercialization of the Chinese photographic
community during this time period, the romanticism and
idealism of earlier Western photographers continued to
persist amongst individual photographers. The studio
communities, formed in the mid to late 1850’s, based in
Shanghai, gradually evolved and would come to develop into
some of the largest in in China. As China came into the 20th
century, Western photography in China experienced a
resurgence of old ideas. Notions of the ‘Orient’, the
40
romantic idealism expressed by earlier Western photographers
towards China began to return into work of many
photographers as the Qing governments reforms of Chinese
society began to be seen in Chinese daily life. Many Western
photographers, leading up to and following the 1911
revolution, began to once again adopt a quiet and in many
ways more genuine respect towards Native Chinese.
With the founding of the republic in 1912, the era of
‘the Great Qing’ was swept away leaving China and West a
more or less clean slate to look at each other through new
eyes. The contributions and experiences of Western
photographers in pre-1911 China, despite their
misunderstandings and bias, provide an extraordinary glimpse
into the evolution and formation of the Western perspective
with regards to China and the Chinese. Through the images of
these early photographic journeymen, one is given a crucial
glimpse of China in the waning days of the Qing Dynasty.
41