This exhibition is devoted to images of China by Scottish photographer John Thomson (1837-1921). Born in Edinburgh Thomson first travelled to Asia in 1862, where he set up a professional photographic studio. Fascinated by local cultures, Thomson returned in 1868, settling in Hong Kong. Over the next four years he made extensive trips to Guangdong, Fujian, Beijing, China’s north-east and down the Yangtze. This exhibition is drawn from his time in these regions. In the early days of photography, when negatives were made on glass plates, a cumbersome mass of equipment was required but Thomson was nevertheless able to capture a wide variety of images. His works present the human aspects of life in China through the extensive record of everyday-street scenes, rarely captured by other photographers of that era. After returning to Britain, Thomson took an active role informing the public about China, through illustrated lectures and publications. In 1920, he wrote to H
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