By Elin Spring
How do you picture China? Two photographers working almost 150 years apart offer fascinating “call and response” views in a newly opened exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, MA. A Lasting Memento: John Thomson’s Photographs Along the River Min presents extraordinary 1870’s photographs by the Scottish ex-patriot with an inspired contemporary reply from Chinese photographer Luo Dan. Responding to a burgeoning British tea trade, Thomson’s exploratory images prompt inevitable comparisons to our current trade relations with China. Artistically compelling and unexpectedly timely, A Lasting Memento will be on view through May 17th , 2020.
John Thomson, A Rapid Boat, 1870-1871. Carbon print. Gift of the Estate of Mrs. Anthony Rives. © Peabody Essex Museum. Photography by Ken Sawyer.
John Thomson, Foochow and the River Min, 1870-1871. Carbon print. Gift of the Estate of Mrs. Anthony Rives. © Peabody Essex Museum. Photography by Ken Sawyer.
In an eerie parallel to today, the late 1800’s represented an international inflection point, with rampant Western industrialization spurring expansive global trade, cultural exchange and attendant political tension. The invention of photography in 1839 enabled our earliest photographs of faraway lands and exotic cultures, most often brought back by wealthy amateurs (many of those images are held in the rich archives of the PEM.) Not so with John Thomson, a renowned professional photographer who garnered capital through pre-paid subscriptions to his album “Foochow and the River Min.” Thomson photographed the project on a two-year journey, traveling 160 miles up the River Min, from the city of Fuzhou (Foochow) to Nanping, considered one of the most picturesque regions in China.
John Thomson, A Small Temple at Ku-Shan, 1870-1871. Carbon print. Gift of the Estate of Mrs. Anthony Rives. © Peabody Essex Museum. Photography by Ken Sawyer.
John Thomson, Foochow Church, 1870-1871. Carbon print. Gift of the Estate of Mrs. Anthony Rives. © Peabody Essex Museum. Photography by Ken Sawyer.
In this scenic southeast region of China, a new British tea trade was flourishing. Thomson’s album catered to the interests of foreign tea planters, merchants, missionaries and governmental officials. These ex-patriots clamored to share with their European family and friends Thomson’s skillfully crafted documentary photographs of the Chinese land and people who shaped their new lives. Interestingly, Thomson did not photograph much industry or commerce. Rather, he portrayed a halcyon land, with romanticized vistas that reference the ethereal atmosphere of Chinese paintings and the sweeping panoramas of European paintings.
John Thomson, Road to the Plantation, 1870-1871. Carbon print. Gift of the Estate of Mrs. Anthony Rives. © Peabody Essex Museum. Photography by Ken Sawyer.
John Thomson, Pagoda Island, 1870-1871. Carbon print. Gift of the Estate of Mrs. Anthony Rives. © Peabody Essex Museum. Photography by Ken Sawyer.
John Thomson, A Reach of the Min, 1870-1871. Carbon print. Gift of the Estate of Mrs. Anthony Rives. © Peabody Essex Museum. Photography by Ken Sawyer.
John Thomson, Right Shoulder of Cave, 1870-1871. Carbon print. Gift of the Estate of Mrs. Anthony Rives. © Peabody Essex Museum. Photography by Ken Sawyer.
Luckily for us, Thomson was far more than referential in his vision and his artistry. Creating drama with sharp angles that produced intriguing points of view, he designed dynamic compositions using linear elements, especially diagonals, often utilizing a solitary figure in the foreground and a mountainous horizon in the distance. Some of his work showed tinges of modernism, with surreal or abstract aspects, such as the reflections seen in his breath-taking “The Island Pagoda” and sharp horizontal juxtaposition in “Part of Lower Bridge.”
John Thomson, The Island Pagoda, 1873. Carbon print. Gift of the Estate of Mrs. Anthony Rives. © Peabody Essex Museum. Photography by Ken Sawyer.
John Thomson, Part of Lower Bridge, 1870-1871.Carbon print. Gift of the Estate of Mrs. Anthony Rives. © Peabody Essex Museum. Photography by Ken Sawyer.
John Thomson, Coolies, 1870-1871. Carbon print. Gift of the Estate of Mrs. Anthony Rives. © Peabody Essex Museum. Photography by Ken Sawyer.
Thomson’s portraits were frankly ethnographic, a painful reminder of the patronizing, “imperial” viewpoint expressed by many photographers of the day (like Edward Curtis’ portraits of Native American Indians.) Despite their blatant exoticism, such photographs endure as the sole surviving documents of entire cultures and persist as handsomely crafted, inescapably riveting studies.
John Thomson, Mode of Dressing the Hair, 1870-1871. Carbon print. Gift of the Estate of Mrs. Anthony Rives. © Peabody Essex Museum. Photography by Ken Sawyer.
John Thomson, Rocks in the Rapids, 1870-1871. Carbon print. Gift of the Estate of Mrs. Anthony Rives. © Peabody Essex Museum. Photography by Ken Sawyer.
Thomson’s carbon prints are technically awe-inspiring. Utilizing the cumbersome wet-plate collodion method of creating negatives on large, delicate glass plates that must be exposed while still wet in a hefty view camera on a tripod, Thomson then created his photographic prints on paper with the tricky but stable carbon method in his studio. I imagine this undertaking bore similarities to Hannibal crossing the Alps and that Thomson must have been a robust and determined 33 year-old. Perhaps he was also a perfectionist, because Thomson’s prints from the 1870’s are impeccably pristine. Come see, it is uncanny.
Luo Dan, Simple Song No. 62 (Door), 2012. Inkjet print from collodion negatives. © Luo Dan, Courtesy of M97 Gallery.
Luo Dan, Simple Song No. 28 (Sha Yi Hai with His Crossbow, Shi Di Village), 2010. Inkjet print from collodion negatives. © Luo Dan, Courtesy of M97 Gallery.
Contemporary Chinese photographer Luo Dan’s work was actually inspired by John Thomson’s photographic survey of the 1870’s. His present-day images contribute a thought-provoking response to Thomson’s vision and offer an interesting context to the exhibit. Embarking on a spiritually motivated journey, Luo traveled to the remote Nu River Valley in southwestern China, documenting the unusual Lisu and Nu Christian ethnic minority communities. As a further homage to Thomson, Luo utilized the same wet-plate collodion method.
Luo Dan, Simple Song No. 7 (Jin Ma Wei, Lao Mu Deng Village), 2010. Inkjet print from collodion negatives. © Luo Dan, Courtesy of M97 Gallery.
With an “outsider” viewpoint similar to Thomson’s – albeit around 2010 – Luo sought to visualize the villagers’ connection to their rarified cultural traditions. Unlike Thomson, Luo’s process allowed the characteristic imperfections of wet-plate collodion technique (similarly embraced in the work of contemporary practitioners like Sally Mann), which he transferred faithfully onto his modern inkjet prints. Entitled “Simple Song,” Luo’s series of photographs harken a divinely serene time and place, a seeming throwback to the period of Thomson’s then cutting-edge project. Luo’s is an intriguing and curious response to Thomson’s work, at once analogous and distinctive, very much like the socio-economic and political parallels it draws with today’s world.
Luo Dan, Simple Song No. 4 (Yang Du Lei and Her Sister Yang Hua Lin, WaWa Village), 2010. Inkjet print from collodion negatives. © Luo Dan, Courtesy of M97 Gallery.
For directions, hours and more information about this exhibit and associated events, go to: https://www.pem.org/exhibitions/a-lasting-memento-john-thomsons-photographs-along-the-river-min
Feature Image: John Thomson, The Altar of Heaven, 1870-1871. Carbon print. Gift of the Estate of Mrs. Anthony Rives. ©Peabody Essex Museum. Photography by Ken Sawyer.
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