The General Council of Essonne, through the French Museum of Photography maintains one of the largest collections of photographic heritage covering the entire history of photography and its uses. It counts among its most iconic and fragile, the first pictures known to-date in China, and the diary of the author Jules Itier.
These photographic works are the subject of a new exhibition to offer a unique opportunity to discover the first photographic eye that has focused on Western China. Presented at the China Cultural Centre in Paris on the occasion of its 10th anniversary, and in Beijing and Lishui, it is presented now in Wuhan, with the support of the Municipality and the Museum of Fine Arts in Wuhan. This exhibition presents fifteen daguerreotypes made in 1844 in Macao and Canton shortly after the invention of photography. The exhibition does not attempt to trace the history of photography or the biography of Jules Itier but rather to highlight the specificity of the testimony of both visual and written through photographs and newspaper.
In parallel with the exhibition will be offered another exhibition organized by the Museum of Fine Arts and Wuhan Municipality. Entitled Shadows of the Yangtze River, it's a series of photos taken between 1858 and 1910 of Wuhan, Hankow Bund and the Yellow Crane Pagoda. There is also an array of old cameras on display: a 1860′s Steinheil, a 1890′s Photo-Hall, and a 1904′s Sanderson.
Details of the exhibition can be found here, with some photos of the exhibition from a blog here.
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