Terry Bennett is the author of several books on the art of the camera. He's appearing at the Shanghai Literary Festival later this month (Sunday March 21, 11am) to talk about his most recent work, The History of Photography in China: 1842-1860.
The introduction of photography to the Middle Kingdom coincided with the outbreak of the Opium Wars, and Bennett's richly illustrated book looks back at the earliest images to come out of a country in upheaval.
Here he talks about the trouble he had structuring the book, and his favorite photos.
What challenges did you face trying to put together the book?
The biggest problem I faced was in structuring the contents. Deciding on a chronological, regional or photographer-centric approach was difficult. I ended up with a chronological approach which just about held together. There were very many amateur and commercial photographers operating in China during the late Qing era, and attempting to track down biographical details on many of the key players was not easy. Fortunately, genealogical resources are now much more widely available than they were, say twenty years ago.
What did you learn that most surprised you?
I was pleasantly surprised by the number of photographers who led such interesting lives. The number of different nationalities and the photographers' diverse backgrounds surprised me. They ranged from engineers to aristocracy.
Of the various figures you profile in the book, do you have a favorite? Or someone you think was pivotal to photography gaining a foothold?
I very much like the work of the Swiss photographer, Pierre Rossier whose photographs of China were the first to be published commercially. His pioneering efforts made it easier for those who followed him. I also have a soft spot for the American artist, George West who came to China in 1844 [as an artist attached to an official US trade mission] and became the country's first commercial photographer. He stayed in China some six or seven years, travelling in the interior in disguise.
Do you have a favorite image in the book?
I like the image of the
Shanghai Bund (pages 134-5), taken by William Jocelyn in 1858/9. He was an assistant to Lord Elgin during the latter's diplomatic efforts in China. It is a remarkable picture since it is the earliest-known photographic image of the foreign settlement.
How was photography perceived in China when it was first introduced?
Early photography in China was not welcomed by the Chinese. They felt that being photographed would mean losing one's soul and that death would inevitably follow.
What did that mean for practitioners of photography?
Outdoor photography in China (outside of the foreign settlement areas in the treaty ports) was very difficult since photographers would be subject to the hostile attentions of crowds of local Chinese.
Were these new images of China of interest to people outside it?
From the mid-nineteenth century, Western audiences were very interested in photographic images from the Far East - especially China, Japan, Thailand and the Philippines.
For more of Chinatravel.net's coverage of this year's Literary Festivals in China, click the links below: