Photography in China

Photography in China (in Chinese 攝影 shè yǐng, literally ‘capturing images’, although other appellations exist[1]) dates back to the mid-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.

[3] Some of the very early photographers in China include Dr Richard Woosnam, Major George Malcolm, Henry Collen, Jules Itier and Zou Boqi.

In the second half of the 19th century, some Chinese photo studios were established, such as Kung Tai (公泰照相樓)[4] and Sze Yuen Ming (上洋耀華照相) in Shanghai, and Pun Lun (繽綸) and Lai Afong (赖阿芳) in Hong Kong.

In the early years of the People's Republic, the state organized artists and writers into official groups that directed their work and provided them with steady salaries.

During the movement, ordinary citizens (amateur photographers) picked up the cameras and documented people's public mourning for Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

Although their work has not been as explicitly political as that by very similar conceptual artists in the west, it has used the same repertoire of 'shock'; nakedness, swear words, dead babies and elephant dung, among other items that have now become tired clichés.