Category Archives: History of photography in China

Restored – the grave of pioneering travel photographer John Thomson

Jamie Carstairs, who manages the Historical Photographs of China Project, reports on the tribute to the photographer John Thomson FRGS, whose grave has now been restored. John Thomson (1837-1921) is acclaimed in Martin Parr and Gerry Badger’s The Photobook: A History … Continue reading

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Reversing Robert Capa’s gaze: Wuhan, 1938

Ooo, look: our eagle-eyed Project Manager Jamie Carstairs spotted this wonderful photograph taken in 1938 by Robert Capa in Hankou (Wuhan) and recently published in MAGNUM China (Colin Pantall and Zheng Ziyu, eds, Thames & Hudson, 2018): This is one of … Continue reading

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In and outside the combat zone: The Regimental Museums Project (2)

Dr Andrew Hillier completes his introduction to The Regimental Museums Project by discussing some of the more nuanced aspects of military photography and the importance of regimental archives. Aside from Felix Beato’s photographs of the Second Opium War, referred to … Continue reading

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In and outside the combat zone: The Regimental Museums Project (1)

In the first of two blogs, Dr Andrew Hillier introduces a new Historical Photographs of China initiative – the Regimental Museums Project – which he is coordinating, and which will draw on photographs in regimental and national collections, to explore … Continue reading

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‘A Darkly Mysterious Instrument’: Through China with John Thomson

Dr Andrew Hillier discusses the China photographs of John Thomson (1837-1921) in the light of a recent exhibition of his work at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS. One of two hundred images published in John Thomson’s Illustrations of China and its … Continue reading

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The Kodak comes to Peking

Dr Andrew Hillier has been looking at the unpublished letters of a British Student Interpreter, later Consul, Walter Clennell. The correspondence highlights the importance of photography to Legation life in Beijing in the late 1880s. Andrew recently completed his PhD at the University … Continue reading

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Liu Yuanyuan on Fu Bingchang and Beibei Northern Springs

In the second of our blogs from participants in the ‘Snapshots in Time’ summer school we hear from Liu Yuanyuan, a second-year PhD student in Landscape Architecture at the University of Edinburgh (Email: s1366067@sms.ed.ac.uk). Her research interests lie in the fields of landscape history … Continue reading

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Josepha Richard on Documenting gardens of China through early photographs

Josepha Richard is a PhD candidate at the University of Sheffield, specialised in Modern China and the gardens of 19th century Guangzhou. She holds an MA in Chinese studies  (Leeds University) and Art History (Sorbonne Paris IV) and was recently … Continue reading

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Report on 'Snapshots in Time: Photography and History in Modern China'

Dr Sabrina Fairchild, who composed this blog, and who organised this workshop, completed her PhD at the University of Bristol in Spring 2016 with a thesis on ‘Fuzhou and Global Empires: Understanding the Treaty Ports of Modern China, 1850-1937.’ On … Continue reading

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Postgraduate workshop: 'Snapshots in Time: Photography and History in Modern China'

The British Inter-university China Centre, and the Historical Photographs of China project at the University of Bristol warmly invite applications from Masters and Doctoral students working in modern Chinese and East Asian history to participate in a three-day research training … Continue reading

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