China The Land And Its People - Early Photographs. Selected from the Author's 4-Vol 1873 Ed)tion

Hong Kong: John Warner Publications, 1979. Second Edition . Hard Back. Very Good/Very Good. 7 1/2" X 10. 160 Pages Indexed. Black boards. A hardcover book with gold spine lettering and black and white photographs on almost all pages. Four inked-words of gift inscription are on the front endpaper. No other marks. Interior text pages are bright, tight, and white. John Thomson (1837-1919), traveller , writer and pioneer photographer, left China in 1872 after spending almost ten years in the Far East. In 1873 the magnificent Illustrations of China and Its People in four volumes appeared - the result of his work in that then remote and fascinating country. Now regarded as the first photographic travelogue of any kind to be published, the expensive limited edition has remained largely unknown and unseen. This present book, a rediscovery of John Thomson's work in China, contains 140 photographs and one map interwoven with his observations. It presents many aspects of China as it was a century ago and remains a unique record of that period. While readers today are familiar with China's famous monuments, Thomson's portraits of its rulers and aristocracy, the costumes and customs of the people, and the occupations and life-style of the under priviledged, remain of engrossing interest. Thomson's curiosity is endless, his observations accurate, his photographs penetrating. His stated aim was simply to make pictures which "afford the nearest approach towards placing the reader before the scene represented." But as the most gifted photographer to travel in China in the 19th century, he goes beyond a mere record of landscapes, towns, villages and buildings. He takes his camera into homes, workshops and into the street. Here he seeks out anonymous people (as he was later to do again in London), and photographs them with sensitivity and compassion.