Brush & Shutter

by Cody, Jeffrey W.; Terpak, Frances; Hung, Wu; Lai, Edwin K. (CON)

• ISBN13: 9781606060544
• ISBN10: 1606060546
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-03-08
• Publisher: J Paul Getty Museum Pubns

Summary

Photography was introduced to China in the 1840s through the West's engagement in the Opium Wars and the subsequent reforms of Chinese statesmen. As a result, traditional modes of expression were dramatically transformed.Uncovered here is a captivating visual history of China during photography's first century. Chinese export painters learned and adapted the medium of photography by grafting the new technology onto traditional artistic conventions - employing both brush and shutter. Ultimately, both Chinese and Western photographers were witnesses to and agents of dynamic cultural change.The essays in this volume - which cover topics from the medium's evolution, commercialisation, and dissemination to how photography helped shape China's national image - shed new light on the birth of a medium.