Nineteenth-century China: Uncommon pictures on the daybreak of images
Written by Oscar Holland, CNN
Before the arrival of photography, the Western imagination of China was based on paintings, written travelogues and dispatches from a seemingly far-off land.
From the 1850s, however, a band of pioneering Western photographers sought to capture the country’s landscapes, cities and people, captivating audiences back home and sparking a homegrown photography movement in the process.
Among them were the Italian Felice Beato, who arrived in China in the 1850s to document Anglo-French exploits in the Second Opium War, and Scottish photographer John Thompson, whose journey up the Min River offered people in the West a rare look into the country’s remote interior.
Scottish photographer John Thompson documented his travels up the Min River, offering a rare look at remote areas of China. Credit: The Loewentheil Collection of China Photography
These are just some of the figures whose work features in a 15,000-strong photo collection amassed by New York antiquarian and…
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