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Title: Lai Afong
Description: Lai Afong (1839-1890)[1], an early professional photographer in Hong Kong known for portraits and local scenery[2].

1.	Biography
Lai Afong’s ancestral home is Gaoming, Guangdong. He fled to Hong Kong during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement to take refuge. In 1859, he entered a photo studio run by foreigners to study photography. From 1865 to 1867, he worked at the Silvera Studio in Hong Kong[1]. In 1870, Lai Afong established the Afong Studio in Hong Kong[3]. Afong Studio was first opened at No. 54 Queen's Road. It moved four times until 1941. First, it was moved to Yunxian Street in 1872. Then it moved back to Queen's Road in 1878. In 1885, it was moved to the Snow Factory and moved to No. 1 Dejili Street in 1922. Afong Studio has a wide range of clients. It provides outdoor shooting, takes photos of various sizes, sells various exquisite albums and photo frames, provides service of painting colour for photos from business card small photos to life-size. From the 1860s, Lai Afong frequently published advertisements in local newspapers in foreign languages. The earliest advertisement was published in the Hong Kong Daily Press in 1870. The advertisement said, "Lai photographed the wind in many places, and he is selling it." He also sells small commodities such as pipes in the studio and mentioned this in detail on the newspaper. In 1872, Lai Afong hired some foreign photographers to work in Afong Studio, such as Emile Riesfield, William Lenz, Griffith. Afong also uses this to attract foreign customers. [4] In 1883, Lai Afong joined British citizenship. In April 1890, Lai Afong died of a sudden stroke at the age of 51.

2.	Achievements
Lai Afong is one of the most successful commercial photographers in China in the 19th century. The Afong Studio he runs is well-known among Westerners. Due to the price advantage and the guarantee of excellent photo quality, Afong Photo Studio Continue to develop and cultivate international customer groups, including resident foreigners and foreign tourists. Lai Afong’s work has been recognized worldwide. British photography historian Terry Bennett called it "the best photographer in China in the 19th century" and "The achievements are no less than those of their Western counterparts in the same period." "The most successful photo studio in the late Qing Dynasty". His artistic philosophy is rooted in Chinese cultural traditions and has a profound impact on the cultural psychology and aesthetic orientation of later Chinese photographers. The Chinese characters and landscape photographed by him not only carry a healthy Chinese literati atmosphere, but the characters in the picture are exquisite without fear or coldness. He advocated that portraits should not follow the appearance of nature in terms of modelling and picture processing. For example, foreign photographers prefer to use diagonal lines, while Afong prefers to use straight lines. In this way, the portraits taken are straight, which is in line with Chinese aesthetics[5].

3.	Personal Experience
In 1859, he opened a photography agency on Queen's Road in Hong Kong, mainly based on portraits. The huge signboard "Photographer Lai Afang" was hung in front of the store, which was very eye-catching. He hired a Portuguese to help to attract European tourists to Hong Kong and take pictures of them [6]. In the second half of the nineteenth century, Hong Kong's foreign trade and tourism also developed rapidly. Overseas Chinese from various countries lived together, and the population proliferated. There are so many photo studios. According to statistics of relevant materials, in the more than ten years from 1860 to 1877, due to competition between Hong Kong, 11 photo studios went bankrupt, and their negatives were all annexed by one company. Lai Afang's photography agency has been steadily ranking first in all stores. It has been operating continuously for 82 years. In the 1880s, he once collaborated with the famous European photographer Griffiths. After Lai's death, his descendants continued to operate until 1941.

4.	Personal Evaluation
In addition to photographing portraits of people, he also photographs the secular life and scenery of Hong Kong society and sells them to tourists as tourist souvenirs. This is the earliest Chinese social record photography. Before this, the images of social life in China were all taken by Western missionaries and explorers. Lai Afang's photography indicates that Chinese photography has officially taken on the role of media in recording history [8]. Lai Afang's photography skills are recognized as top-notch. The famous British photographer John Thomson once spoke highly of it. He praised "Lai Afang has good artistic accomplishment and superb artistic appreciation", and mentioned Lai Afang's unique insights in art. Lai Afang believes that foreigners always want to break away from straight lines or vertical lines in their photographic composition, which is very different from the Chinese people's aesthetic habits. Chinese portraits require balance and symmetry. He advocated that portraits should not follow the appearance of nature in terms of modelling and picture processing. It is not difficult to see from here that traditional Chinese painting forms influence lai Afang's aesthetic taste, and it is for this reason that the Chinese do not only warmly welcome his photography, but also the Chinese style it embodies makes the Europeans have a new sense. Scenery photography is also good at Lai Afang, leaving many superb works. His early scenery works include "Hong Kong Scenery", "Hong Kong Sailing", "Guangzhou Street" and so on. These photos were sold as souvenirs to tourists from various countries to Hong Kong [7].

5. Works
Lai Afong photographed people in different classes in China, containing officials, business people, shoemakers, hairdressers, and foreigners. He photographed from the perspective of the Chinese and recorded their living conditions. In addition to shooting portraits of commercial characters, Afong also took multiple photos reflecting the nature of Hong Kong's colonies and the scenes of Guangdong. His photographic footprints have spread throughout Guangzhou, Shantou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Macau, Taiwan, Shanghai, Yantai, Beijing and other cities. Lai Afong's photography skills were influenced by Chinese painting. He advocated that the portraits of people should not be entirely following the appearance of nature in the composition. Instead, he paid attention to the balance and symmetry of the picture. He believes that the photography composition of foreigners always wants to break away from straight lines or vertical lines, which is very different from the aesthetic habits of Chinese people. The present works of Lai Afong are mainly shot in the 1870s and 1880s, keeping first-hand materials for posterity to understand the history of the late Qing Dynasty. [1]

6. Recent News
Lai Afang started his photography career in Hong Kong in 1859. The Afang photo studio has been opened in business for nearly a century. Its artistic concepts and aesthetic appeal are rooted in traditional Chinese art and have a profound impact on future Chinese photography industry and related workers [9]. The 60 photographic works to be exhibited in "China in the Qing Dynasty under the lens of Lai Afang" are all from the private collection of Steven Lowenhill in the United States. The exhibition period will last 130 days, and it is starting from February 6, 2020, to ending on June 14. According to Lowenhill, some of these works show the beautiful landscapes of Chinese cities such as Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Fuzhou, and Xiamen in the late Qing Dynasty, and some record critical early portraits of various people at that time. Through Lai Afang's perspective, the audience can get a glimpse of 19th-century Chinese characters, landscapes, cities, buildings, historical sites and cultural features. As the first photographic exhibition on the theme of the 19th-century Chinese city street scene, the exhibition will showcase the street culture of Beijing and Hong Kong recorded in the lens of Lai Afang and Thomas Chard. Since the advent of photography in the second half of the 19th century, street photography has gradually become a unique category of photography. Lai Afang and Thomas Chard both shot a series of works on the theme of the cities they lived in China. These works were organized into street photography collections in the form of individual albums. Lai Afang took photos from the collection of street work in Beijing and Hong Kong, and Thomas Child is not only excellent works of art but also a kaleidoscope of the daily life of Chinese people in the 19th century.

7.	Similarities and differences in photography style between Thomson and Lai Afang
This question is a bit big. Both Thomson (John Thomson) and Lai Afang are top-rated photographers in the 1870s [10]. Although they were both commercial photographers, they took photos to make money. Some of the negatives filmed in Hong Kong are sold, but it is undeniable that the art of their works is very high, regardless of the composition and printing technology can be said to be one of the best in that era, such as the Duke of Edinburgh 's visit passing by In Hong Kong, only the two of them were invited to take portraits of the Duke. The photo studio they opened in Hong Kong is very close, they are competitors, but they are sympathetic. Thomson once commented on A Fang, and there is a Chinese named A Fang in Hong Kong who has exquisite taste [11]. With these words, he can be famous in London. There is one China-man in Hong-Kong, of the name of Afong, who has exquisite taste and produces work that would enable him to make a living even in London. After people have seen many of their works, they still want them to compare them, which is better than whose works. As it happens, the content of their works is quite similar, which is suitable for comparison together.

8.	Comments
Terry Bennett, the author of History of Photography in China, commented "Lai Afong’s work has been recognized worldwide ... I think he was the best Chinese photographer in the 19th century, and his achievements are no less than Western photographers at this time. " John Thomson, a famous British photographer and a Hong Kong competitor of Lai Afong, said "(Afong) has exquisite taste and his work can stand in London. The Chinese people's understanding of art is different from ours, but Afong's works are very different from his Chinese counterparts, and it is easy for us to accept. " The photographer David Griffith said in 1875 that "(Afong) has entered the arena of European art, and the photos he has taken have been among the best photography works in Hong Kong. "

References

[1] Chen, Shi. Early Chinese Photographers from 1840 to 1870: Innovation and Adaptation in the Development of Chinese Photography. Diss. University of Florida, 2009.

[2] Bennett, Terry. Pierre Joseph Rossier-Pioneer, Photographer in East Asia. Old Photography Study 3 (2009): 2-10.

[3] Bennett, Terry. History of Photography in China: Chinese Photographers 1844-1879. London: Bernard Quaritch. (2013). ISBN 9780956301246.

[4] Roberts, Claire. Photography and China. Reaktion Books, 2013.

[5] Cody, Jeffrey W., and Frances Terpak, eds. Brush & Shutter: early photography in China. No. 1. Getty Publications, 2011.

[6] Newton G. Picture Paradise: Asia-Pacific Photography 1840s-1940s. Natl Gallery of Australia; 2008.

[7] Chu PT, Milam J. Beyond Chinoiserie. InBeyond Chinoiserie 2018 Oct 16 (pp. 1-15). Brill.

[8] Chen, Shi. Early Chinese Photographers from 1840 to 1870: Innovation and Adaptation in the Development of Chinese Photography. Diss. University of Florida, 2009.

[9] Chen, Shi. Early Chinese Photographers from 1840 to 1870: Innovation and Adaptation in the Development of Chinese Photography. Diss. University of Florida, 2009.

[10] Roberts, Claire. Photography and China. Reaktion Books, 2013.

[11] Bennett, Terry. "Pierre Joseph Rossier-Pioneer Photographer in East Asia." Old Photography Study 3 (2009): 2-10.

Further Reading

Chu, Petra ten-Doesschate, Jennifer Milam. "Beyond Chinoiserie." Beyond Chinoiserie. Brill, 2018. 1-15.

Hannavy, John, ed. Encyclopedia of nineteenth-century photography. Routledge, 2013.

Marien, Mary Warner. Photography: A cultural history. laurence king publishing, 2006.

Spence, Jonathan D., Clark Worswick. Imperial China: Photographs 1850-1912. Australian National University Press, 1980.

Hung, Wu. Zooming In: Histories of Photography in China. Reaktion Books, 2016.

Gartlan, Luke, et al. Reviews Publications Received. History of Photography 35.1 (2011): 80-93.