Prince Gong Yi by Feliz Beato

On October 24, 1860, Felice Beato took a photo of the Chinese representative Prince Gong Yi? Rare photos.

General Currington, the commander of the British Army in the Anglo-French Allied Forces, described it in his diary: "During the treaty signing ceremony, the tireless Mr. Beato wanted to give the signing of the Treaty of Beijing To take a good photo, he moved his camera equipment in, placed it in the middle of the door, and pointed the huge lens at the chest of Prince Gong, who looked gloomy. The emperor's brother raised his head in horror. The ground turned pale as soon as it was brushed... He thought that the weird cannon opposite him would blow his head off at any time. "

However, due to the poor lighting in the room at that time, Bito did not do this. The first photo shoot of Prince Gong was not successful. On November 2, Prince Gong paid a return visit to Elgin, and Bito once again seized the opportunity to take a supplementary photo of Prince Gong at the residence of Lord Elgin. This photo was taken very successfully and has been used many times since then, becoming the standard portrait of Prince Gong. This is also the earliest photo of a royal member that we know of, providing reliable image data for studying political history and photography history.