Historical Gaze (Photographic Records of Kunming Society in the Late Qing and Early Republic Period 1896-1925)

Author: (French) Auguste Fran?ois
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2000-04-01
Features: The artistic charm of this album is enduring. This collection of old photographs of Kunming is culturally rich and cannot be fully explained in a few words or articles. The artistic essence they display and embody is not only captivating but also subtle and worth savoring. To give more readers the opportunity to appreciate their beauty, Yunnan Fine Arts Publishing House has not only published this large 12-inch album but also plans to release a popular edition with illustrations, focusing on interpreting and explaining the local customs and stories of Kunming embedded in the old photographs, as well as a comparative edition that blends ancient and modern, showcasing contrasts between past and present. I firmly believe that the publication of this collection will not be underestimated in its due value.
Frenchman Auguste Fran?ois took old photographs of Kunming from 1896 to 1925, which have recently been published by Yunnan Fine Arts Publishing House. This large-scale album, titled Historical Gaze: Photographic Records of Kunming Society in the Late Qing and Early Republican Era, compiles over 300 images. Auguste Fran?ois, who served as the French Consul General in Kunming a century ago, vividly captured numerous cultural and natural landscapes in Yunnan using wet-collodion photography, an invention that had just recently been developed in Europe at the time. Those photographs, which depict the commercial trade, maritime sails, tea houses and food stalls, caravan escort teams, Yunnan Opera performances, temple fairs, and folk documentary scenes of Kunming's old era, as well as numerous group shots of the Dianchi water system, Kunming's ancient city walls, temples and buildings, moats, and bridges, remain particularly precious to this day.