Photography in China
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Photography in China dates back to the early 19th century with the arrival of European photographers in Macao. In the 1850s, western photographers set up studios in the coastal port cities, but soon their Chinese assistants and local competition spread to all regions. By the end of the nineteenth century, all major cities had photographic studios where middle class Chinese could have portraits taken for family occasions; western and Chinese photographers documented ordinary street life, major wars, and prominent figures; and affluent Chinese adopted photography as a hobby. Even the Empress Dowager Cixi had her portrait taken repeatedly. In the twentieth century, photography in China, as in other countries around the world, was used for recreation, record keeping, newspaper and magazine journalism, political propaganda, and fine-art photography. According to the scholar Meccarelli,Chinese photography is "the result of combining several different factors:
- the study of optics (invention of camera obscura)
- the development of modern chemistry (photosensitive substances)
- the diffusion and settlement of Western medicine (especially anatomy)
- the presence of Westerners and missionaries (know-how and use of the photographic tool)
Furthermore, we should never forget that, being an art and a science, photography resulted also from the theoretical and technical assumptions of painting and printing traditions."
See also
- Felice Beato
- Henri Cartier-Bresson
- Robert Capa
- China Lucky Film
- Auguste François
- Hakuyō Fuchikami
- Greg Girard
- Tadahiko Hayashi
- Joris Ivens
- Hou Bo
- Liu Xucang
- Ma Liuming
- Hedda Morrison
- Mu Qing
- Ou Ning
- Qiu Zhijie
- Eva Sandberg
- Marc Riboud
- Pierre Rossier
- William Saunders (photographer)
- John Thomson (photographer)
- Xia Xiao Wan
- Xu Xiaobing
- Yip Cheong Fun
- Zheng Guogu
- Zhang Ou
