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What was China like during the late Qing Dynasty? What did people wear? How did they live? These 30 photographs are windows on a lost world, including this 13-part panorama of the Shanghai Bund.
"It is the only surviving example of this view, what the great city of Shanghai looked like at the moment when it was begining to become an international trading point. And now it's completely unrecognizable."
For decades, Steven Loewentheil has been collecting these photographs captured through the lenses of Chinese and Western photographers. They've been shown together for the first time at this New York exhibition titled: Masterpieces of Early Chinese Photography —one of the highlights of Asia Art Week.
The early days of paper photography date back to the 1850s. And it wasn't until about a decade later when it became commercialized around the world, including in Asia.
"Due to anomalies in history, many of these photographs were destroyed and not too many survived. Those that survived tend to have left China with visitors to China in the 19th century. And those were then dispersed. And it isn't until recent years that people have realized the significance of documenting the glory, the beauty and the culture of China at a very formative period."
Loewentheil says the photographs have artistic as well as historical value.
