Shanghai River "Ta-Young"
1865
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
22.5 × 26 cm (8 7/8 × 10 1/4 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Purchase, Cynthia Hazen Polsky Gift, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.583 (92a)
Art Historical Context
Step into the bustling world of 1860s Shanghai with John Thomson's *Shanghai River "Ta-Young"*, an albumen silver print a glass negative, captured in 1865. This 22.5 × 26 cm photograph offers a vivid snapshot of the Huangpu River, a vital of trade and commerce in one of China's most dynamic ports. Thomson, a pioneering Scottish and traveler, documented everyday life in Asia during his extensive journeys from 1862 to 1872, bringing distant scenes to Western audiences through his keen eye for detail and composition. The albumen process, the gold standard of mid-19th-century photography, yields ...
About the Artist
John Thomson · 1837–1921
John Thomson (1837–1921), a pioneering Scottish photographer, was born on 14 June 1837 in Edinburgh as the eighth of nine children to William Thomson, a tobacco spinner and trader, and Isabella Newlands.) After schooling in the early 1850s, he apprenticed with a local optical and scientific instrument manufacturer, where he mastered the principles of photography, completing his training around 185...