Brief introduction of john thomson

John thomson (John Thomson1837 June14-1921September 29th) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is a famous photographer, geographer and explorer in Scotland.

From 1857 to 1858, he attended night classes at Watt Art School. 186 1 year, he became a member of RoyalScottishSocietyofArts. From April 65438 to April 0862, he began a ten-year trip to the Far East, recording the people, scenery and oriental culture in the Far East with images. It is regarded as one of the founders of documentary photography by western photography circles.

Chinese name: john thomson.

John thomson.

Nationality: UK

Place of birth: Edinburgh, England

Date of birth: June 1837+04.

Date of death:192165438+1October 7.

Occupation: photographer, geographer, explorer

Representative Works: Images of China and China.

Personal experience

Travel to the east

From 65438 to 0862, john thomson began his trip to Asia, taking photos in Malacca Strait, India, Cambodia, Thailand and China. During his stay in China, he got help from three Hongkong people. 1866 returned to England and exhibited his photos taken in Asia.

1869, Thomson came to China again and opened a studio in Queen's Road, Hong Kong to shoot portraits and sell photos of Hong Kong scenery. Later, he traveled more than 5,000 miles in China and Taiwan Province provinces, and had extensive contacts with China society. At that time, he used the wet printing method and needed to carry a lot of equipment, so he hired eight "coolies" with heavy photographic equipment. It starts from Hongkong, passes through Guangzhou, Taiwan Province Province, Shantou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Shanghai, Ningbo, Nanjing and other places, then goes upstream along the Yangtze River until it reaches Guizhou. Later, I went north to Tianjin and Beijing and visited places of interest such as Nankou and the Great Wall.

feel

The purpose of his trip is to faithfully record the wonders of ancient China, people's life, local products and customs through his lens, and then introduce them to people all over the world. In order to take these photos, he overcame various obstacles and obstacles such as language and thought. He said from personal experience: "My feeling in China is that China people are quite sincere and hospitable. I believe that any foreigner who can express his thoughts in language and let the other side understand will encounter similar things in this land. " It can be seen that Thomson's attitude towards the people of China is friendly, and this kind of thoughts and feelings are also reflected in many of his works.

Introduction of works

1873, he reported that China's large-scale photo collection "China and China" was published in Britain, in which 200 photos taken by him in China were published in four volumes, which was spectacular.

Strict record

Thomson said in the preface: This album has both photos and detailed text descriptions, and the description of each photo was recorded during the shooting. Therefore, this album is illustrated with pictures and texts. In order to accurately show the original face of life, he made a lot of efforts in investigation and research. For example, in the photo "The Former Site of an Old Factory in Guangdong", due to the proper use of the light angle, the foreign buildings are in sharp contrast with the dilapidated straw houses around them. He added the following explanation to the photo: "The house in this photo is a symbol of imperialist aggression. This is a small piece of land leased by the Pearl River to the British East India Company in 1684, when the government allowed the East India Company to set up a factory here. 1856 15 February 15 year, China people burned down the houses here. 18665438 February 29th, British and French allied forces occupied Guangzhou, which lasted for186/kloc-0 year. The building in the photo was rebuilt after burning and became leased land in the United States. The owners are Rosso and Mr Smith Archer, who were the first Americans to live in China. From this detailed introduction, we can see the author's rigorous creative attitude. Photo of Jinling Manufacturing Bureau is one of the famous works of Thomson's trip to China. Through this photo, the author introduced the specific situation of the "Westernization" of the Qing government to western readers. The commentary introduces the history, geography, personnel and production scale of this arsenal, as well as the role played by Li Hongzhang, the leader of the Westernization School, in the establishment of this factory. This enhances the attraction and persuasiveness of the photos, making the works not only documentary, but also informative.

Theme of the work

In Thomson's photo album, photos about scenic spots and social customs account for a large proportion. In the choice of theme, we strive to fully reflect all aspects of China society. This is also the outstanding embodiment of Thomson's creative personality in his works. The album not only shows the beautiful scenery of the rivers and mountains in China, but also photographs the scenes of people engaged in productive labor and daily life, from the luxurious private gardens comprador by Guangzhou Foreign Firm to the living conditions of working people at the lowest level of society. The characters shown in these photos are representative to some extent, such as Prince Gong, aristocratic women, urban poor who are employed in the market, opium addicts, emaciated watchman, prisoners with wooden shackles, and craftsmen such as shaving their heads, pedicures and Latin films.

Clever composition

Shooting street scenes is the author's specialty. For example, a corner of downtown Guangzhou and a small scene on the street of Jiujiang are excellent in composition, character modeling and atmosphere rendering. The former shows the bustling scene of shops and various plaques in downtown Guangzhou by using the vertical lines that occupy the advantage of the picture. The latter chooses four representative street vendors to show a picture with China characteristics and interesting customs through ingenious composition and light application.

Social assessment

evaluate

Looking at all john thomson's works, we can see that his trip to Asia and his photography activities in China have deeply influenced his artistic style and creative path. Urge him to pay more attention to the people at the bottom of society and show the real life of the working people. Therefore, his works are loved and appreciated by people all over the world.

During his stay in China, Thomson exhibited his slides at the Asia Society in Shanghai, and published two photo collections, Scenery of Beijiang River and Scenery of Minjiang River, in China, which played a certain role in expanding the influence of photography in China.

perform

The works of foreign photographers who came to China in the early days recorded the different social features of China at that time. Especially after 1860, because foreign photographers were granted the privilege to travel around China, some people focused on showing the social features of China and the living conditions of different social members from all walks of life and regions. After these photos were published, they played an important media role for people all over the world to know about China. In addition to these people, before the 20th century, there were many foreigners who took photos in China, and the photos they left were extremely rich. For example, Thomas Garde, a Frenchman, took many photos of places of interest and urban buildings in Beijing, and preserved the image data of Beijing's urban conditions in the 1970s. W. Saunders and F. Fuehles filmed the mobile food vendors in Shanghai and the Peking Opera performance in Shanghai (taken at 1870). F Skomock, a famous professional photographer in Europe, took a lot of photos from 1862 to 1888 in Fujian, China. Russian photographers entered the "adventure photography" in the northeast, northwest and southwest of China very early. According to records: "In the 1960s, Born compiled 370 photos he took in the Far East and other places into five photo albums. Among them, there are as many as one photo in Heilongjiang "; "In the late 1970s, Far East photographer B Laning took a set of 154 photos of Heilongjiang landscape photography"; "Ranin once filmed daily life scenes in Yakutia, North Korea and southern China with the South Ussuri River expedition." 1883 "Prugger Varski brought a portable camera when he went to Tibet for the fourth time", and the photos taken by him and his assistant B. Robowski were published as illustrations. From 1874 to 1875, A.E. Boyansky went deep into northwest China, north China and Beijing, and took a large number of photos of "Russian scientific and commercial expedition in China", of which 130 was published.

affect

/kloc-European and American photographers who came to China in various capacities in the 20th century, whether they were amateurs who came to do business, photographers who came to travel, or photographers who reported on the battlefield, their extensive contact with the people of China objectively played a positive role in introducing photographic knowledge, importing new technology and spreading photographic technology.