3/28/11

Lost Worlds:Photography in Late Qing dynasty China

1842-1918

By

Bud W. Andrews

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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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