Oliver Moore - Photography in China: Science, Commerce and Communication

Emphasizing the mediums reception among several Chinese constituencies, this book explores photographys impact within new discourses on science, as well as its effects in social life, visual modernity and the media during Chinas transition from imperial to republican government.

General knowledge and academic teaching of early modern Chinese visual culture stops short of fitting photography into the larger context of visual practices and theories. This study redraws the boundaries by making photography the central concern within changing priorities of visual representation and its functions during a period of major cultural and political change. No other study draws on such intimate familiarity with the early glamour of photography as science, commerce and communication in the various local conditions of Chinas cities and towns. Joining a body of critical writing that examines photographys histories outside the familiar confines of the West, this book looks beyond the tourist and imperialist gazes of photographer-adventurers from the Western powers and Japan. It defines instead the Chinese priorities of photographic vision that are abundantly evident in surviving photographs as well as in records as various as technical manuals and personal inscriptions. Local practices and local knowledge are the keys to explain the highly successful indigenization of a medium as globalizing as photography with reference to Chinese societys own terms and practices.

This book will be of particular interest to scholars in art and visual culture, the history of photography and Asian art.

Oliver Mooreis Professor of Chinese language and culture at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. His research focuses on early and modern art history in China.

Cover image: Unknown studio, family group with earlier photograph featuring the father during childhood, c. 1950. Albumen silver print on paper, 42.5 50 cm. Courtesy of Tan Jintu Archive, Suzhou.

First published 2022

by Routledge

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and by Routledge

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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2022 Oliver Moore

The right of Oliver Moore to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record has been requested for this book

ISBN: 978-1-350-10804-2 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-032-07899-1 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-003-08634-5 (ebk)

DOI: 10.4324/9781003086345

Typeset in Sabon

by codeMantra

This series publishes research monographs and edited collections focusing on the history and theory of photography. These original, scholarly books may take an art historical, visual studies, or material studies approach.

1. Jeff Wall and the Concept of the Picture
2. Naomi Merritt

1. The Materiality of Exhibition Photography in the Modernist Era
2. Form, Content, Consequence
3. Laurie Taylor

1. The Image of Environmental Harm in American Social Documentary Photography
2. Chris Balaschak

1. Hybrid Photography
2. Intermedial Practice in Science and Humanities
3. Edited by Sara Hillnhuetter, Stefanie Klamm and Friedrich Tietjen

1. The Selfie, Temporality, and Contemporary Photography
2. Claire Raymond

1. Photography in China
2. Science, Commerce and Communication
3. Oliver Moore

1. Visual Culture Approaches to the Selfie
2. Edited by Derek Conrad Murray