Canton (Guangzhou), Kwangtung province, China: a girl. Photograph by John Thomson, 1869.

A girl-child, wearing hair decorations, seated in an elaborately carved chair, her face turned to the camera

Throughout his journeys in China, the photographer John Thomson found that portraits of children were particularly difficult to obtain. The difficulty arose from Chinese suspicion about foreigners and about the camera, regarding the latter as a mysterious and somehow dangerous instrument of destruction. It was thought that children in particular should be shielded from it. Nevertheless, as Thomson admitted, there were times when he was shown extreme kindness and openness by the locals. This portrait shows a little girl looking straight at the camera with no fear in her eyes. Her headdress and her outfit suggest she was from a fairly well-off family. According to Thomson, however, her natural sparkle would soon be diminished: she would have no opportunity to attend school, and her comely face would be covered with thick makeup: that was the fate of a Chinese girl in the 19th century

1869

1 photograph : glass photonegative, wet collodion

Canton child, South China Bears Thomson's negative number: "683"

John Thomson, Illustrations of China and its people, London, 1873-4, vol. I, pl. IV, "A Chinese girl"

China through the lens of John Thomson, 1868-1872, Beijing: Beijing World Art Museum, 2009, p. 148 (reproduced)

Paisarn Piemmettawat, Siam through the lens of John Thomson 1865-66, including Angkor and coastal China, Bangkok: River Books, 2015, p. 139

This is one of a collection of original glass negatives made by John Thomson. The negatives, made between 1868 and 1872, were purchased from Thomson by Sir Henry Wellcome in 1921

Wellcome Collection 19608i