Do you know how much Prince Alcohol likes taking pictures?

Among the great princes in the late Qing Dynasty, Yi Xuan, the prince of alcohol, had a special liking for taking photos, leaving a lot of precious photos in his life, which became an important image material for later generations to study the history of the late Qing Dynasty.

188 1 year, military affairs minister Zuo was ordered to be transferred to the governor of Liangjiang. Before he left, the wine king gave a banquet as a farewell dinner for Zuo. During this period, Prince Chun took a group photo with Zuo. So there is the following photo. The left figure in the photo is fat, slightly shorter than the alcohol prince, but there is a kind of heroic spirit in his brow that the arrogant alcohol prince does not have.

Zuo is very handsome and rarely takes pictures. Fortunately, there is a prince of alcohol to save a rare voice and smile.

From 65438 to 0886, the Beiyang Navy established by Li Hongzhang began to take shape. In order to get more support from the imperial court, Li Hongzhang invited the imperial court to send personnel to inspect Beiyang Navy. Empress Dowager Cixi ordered Prince Chun, minister of naval yamen, to inspect Beiyang Navy.

Although Prince Chun knows nothing about the military, let alone the navy, he knows the great significance of this inspection, so he plans to invite photographers to take pictures together. At that time, there were two celebrities who opened a photo studio in Tianjin, one was China photographer Liang Shitai and the other was German photographer Lai Xingke. The prince of alcohol brought them here.

Liang Shitai, a native of Guangdong, has exquisite photography skills and rich work experience. As early as 1870, when many people in China were still secretive about taking pictures, he had already opened a photo studio in Hong Kong. Later, he opened photo studios in Guangzhou and Shanghai. In fact, when he opened a photo studio in Shanghai, he also advertised in Shen Bao: "This museum has been set up in Hong Kong for many years, taught by westerners in secret, and tried his best to shoot stone slices, dental slices and silk slices. The scene is realistic."

1875, Liang Shitai came to Tianjin with photographic equipment and opened a photo studio in Xinghua Village (now the intersection of Kaifeng Road and Taierzhuang Road) in the British Concession. This is the first photo studio in Tianjin history.

1879, Grant, the first 18 president of the United States, traveled around the world with his wife and came to China after leaving office. Li Hongzhang, Governor of Zhili and Minister of Beiyang, invited him to visit Tianjin Zhili Governor's Office. During this period, Li Hongzhang invited Liang Shitai to take photos for them and take photos with Zhang Zhengui.

Li Hongzhang was satisfied with the photos and asked him to take some single photos of himself. As soon as Liang Shitai became famous, his reputation spread like wildfire in Tianjin.

Because he often takes photos of officials, Liang Shitai has developed a set of photography skills that cater to the psychology of officials. When Liang Shitai went out to sea to inspect Beiyang Navy, he took a lot of personal photos and group photos of Prince Chun. The well-known "Photo of Prince Chun with Li Hongzhang and Shan Qing" was made by Liang Shitai.

Prince Chun appreciates Liang Shitai very much and is full of praise for his photos. After the inspection, Prince Chun gave Liang Shitai several hundred taels of silver before leaving Tianjin for Beijing.

Later, Prince Chun presented the photos taken by Liang Shitai to Emperor Guangxu. After seeing them, Emperor Guangxu liked them very much and called Liang Shitai into the Forbidden City. So, Liang Shitai became a court photographer again.

1889 When the Prince celebrated his 50th birthday in the spring, Liang Shitai was specially invited to Beijing to take his birthday photo. In this birthday photo, Prince Chun is sitting in a chair in casual clothes, accompanied by his youngest son Zai Tao. There are vases, bowls and books in the background.

When Liang Shitai decorated this photo in his later period, he wrote the words "Prince Chun at the age of 50" and "Zai Tao at the age of three with a headdress and a flower feather".

It is worth mentioning that the next paragraph of this photo is also engraved with the words "In the fifteenth year of Guangxu, the sky was clear in Wan Li, and the moon shone in eastern Guangdong". Allowing photographers to inscribe their names on photos is undoubtedly the greatest appreciation for photographers.

Prince Chun even asked Liang Shitai to make a private photo album for himself-so Prince Chun became the first prince in China to make a private photo album. In this private photo album, there are personal photos of Prince Chun, photos with his family, photos of Prince Chun feeding deer, photos with eunuchs, and a large number of photos of the scenery in Prince Chun's palace.

References:

Photographic Life in Old Tianjin, Private Album of Prince Chun, etc.