Asia: Through the Lens of John Thomson (1865-1972)
VIEW EVENT DETAILSEvening Presentation by Betty Yao, Organizer, “Through the Lens of John Thomson: Hong Kong and Coastal China, 1868-1872”
Drinks reception at 6:30 pm
Discussion at 7:00 pm
Close at 8:00 pm
Legendary Scottish photographer and travel writer John Thomson (1837-1921) arrived to Singapore in 1865. In the next eight years he undertook numerous journeys photographing regions of Asia, from Bangkok and the Siamese royal family to making the first photographic record of the great Angkor Wat. In China he travelled from the Pearl River, the Min River to the Yangtze River and from Fuzhou, Shanghai to Beijing. The photographs taken on these journeys form one of the most extensive records of any region taken in the 19th century. The range, depth and aesthetic quality of John Thomson’s photographic vision mark him out as one of the most important travel photographers.
The method of taking photographs at that time was the wet collodion process, so called because the image needed to be exposed onto a glass plate. This had to be done in complete darkness, on location, in a portable darkroom tent. Thomson therefore had to travel with large number of crates, glass plates and bottles of highly flammable chemicals. Given that his journeys took him through difficult terrains, sometimes to regions where the local people had never seen a white man before, it is all the more remarkable that Thomson was able to make photographs of such beauty and sensitivity. He captured images of the land, people and their daily lives in very a natural way, achieving what we call today a ‘photo-journalistic’ style.
Unlike most photographers working in the Far East at that time, Thomson was not a government official, nor a missionary. He was a professional photographer who was fascinated by Asian culture, especially China. Thomson possessed an open mind and was sensitive to the lives and surroundings of his subjects. His photographs form a unique archive documenting 19th century Asia’s landscapes, architecture, people and customs. This collection of nearly 700 glass plates travelled back with him to Britain in 1872 and today it is housed in the Wellcome Library, London.
Speaker Betty Yao MBE is the organizer of exhibitions featuring John Thompson’s photography which toured 12 cities in China, Europe and America. The exhibition “Through the Lens of John Thomson: Hong Kong and Coastal China, 1868-1872” will be seen in Hong Kong at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum (November 2013 – February 2013) for the first time in nearly 150 years.