Illustrations of late Qing Dynasty Under John Thompson’s Eyes

Preface of the catalogue

By, Ung Vai Meng

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John Thomson was the world is pioneering documentary photographer. He launched a photographic expedition in the Far East that lasted for a decade. Between years 1867 and 1872, Thompson was in China. During this five-year period, bearing his photographic equipment on his back, his footprints ranged far and wide over Chinese soil. His photographs are distinctive in their documentary style. They serve as records of a time in China when the country was backward and decayed but striving for change and prosperity. These pictures are the earliest panoramic photographic records of China.

John Thompson was an expert in expressing his photographic skills to the fullest within the constraints of photography. He understood the essence of minimalism and thought to extract maximum meaning from minimal elements. Most of his photographs depict a corner of a scene, a character in a group, or a moment of a process. The precision and fine presentation of these photographed objects reveals the beauty of the subject. The sense of reified genuineness divulged in Thomson’s photographs surpasses the perceivable reality observed by the average person. When viewers study his photographs, be they still life, landscapes or portraits, they have the feeling of being in the presence of the actual objects, scenery or persons. Through his photographic works, the objective of using images of life to reflect the art of living is realized.

Thomson’s ability to document images vividly and to capture the essence of a moment in high resolution and in all its uniqueness are the qualities that inject life into his photographic works, rendering them eternal. The art of photography is his “third eye”, the special eye with which he explored China in macro view a century ago. By undertaking formidable journeys to explore, discover and document the vast wilderness, Thompson gifted humankind with these rare and precious materials so that in today’s reified history we can learn about the present from the past and strength our knowledge. The secret of Thompson’s lens is the key to his lively and rich photographs. Thompson explored for himself a balance of history and documentary under the new horizon in the history of photography.

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Ung Vai Meng