Masterpieces of Early Chinese Photography Headed to New York

Thirty original photographs considered masterpieces from the late Qing Dynasty will be exhibited in New York at PRPH Books. The exhibition, presented by the 19th Century Rare Book and Photograph Shop, will run as part of Asia Week New York, March 7-20. 

The photographs, from the Stephan Loewentheil Historical Photography of China Collection, will be exhibited together for the first time. They open a window to the lost world of nineteenth-century China, before the country was irrevocably changed by the significant upheavals of the twentieth century. Photographs of China from the late Qing Dynasty are very rare and, as a result, largely unstudied.

The photographs in the exhibition will include both Western and Chinese photographers, such as Lai Fong, Felice Beato, John Thomson, Thomas Child, William Saunders, Pun Lun, and Tung Hing. All are drawn from Loewentheil's collection of Qing Dynasty photographs, currently the largest in private hands.

The opening reception is on March 10, 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m., with a gallery talk "China's place in the history of photography," on March 15, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. 

Images courtesy of Stephan Loewentheil Historical Photography of China Collection