Power and perspective: early photography in China

Abstract

"Power and Perspective: Early Photography in China seeks to rethink the global history of photography by recognizing the centrality of photography at the margins. Whereas histories of nineteenth century photography are often told through the story of a single, usually Euro-American, male hero photographer, the premise of Power and Perspective is that making a photograph is a social process. Each of the book's authors focuses on a different aspect of early photography in China, bringing together recent scholarship in the global history of photography and Chinese studies to reframe photography as a set of practices that emerged out of the colonial encounter and evolved to suit the needs of international trade, travel, and the desire to know an unfamiliar territory."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents

Introduction / Stephanie H. Tung and Karina H. Corrigan -- China's nineteenth century : a snapshot / Mark C. Elliott -- The coolie, the corpse, and the crowd : Felice Beato and the ethics of war photography / Stephanie H. Tung -- The making and marketing of photography in nineteenth-century China / Stephanie H. Tung, Bing Wang, and Karina H. Corrigan -- Collecting China : PEM'S early patrons of Chinese photography / Karina H. Corrigan -- How do we know a faraway place? : China in early photography / Roberta Wue -- Photography and its worlds / Yi Gu.